


Demonology

by Lucyndareads



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Demons, Exorcisms, F/F, M/M, Poltergeists
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:40:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7622569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucyndareads/pseuds/Lucyndareads
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ciel Phantomhive is a jaded exorcist, not as much interested in helping people as he is interested in making money. Aided by his supernaturally gifted right eye, he and his cousin/manager turn a pretty successful profit. Supernatural creatures are jerks, Ciel sends them packing for cash, and that's how it is. </p><p>That is, until, he stumbles on to a demon who won't leave him alone—and, in fact, decides that Ciel needs a new demonic roommate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone! Look, I'm back from the dead!
> 
> I was determined to write after being greatly inspired by some of the amazing writers I've seen in action lately: CoffeeDevil, Pearypie, wearing-my-pitch-black-clothes, TheSightlessSniper, and DisgruntledMinion! You guys have had me captivated with your work, and I want to return the favor as best I can.
> 
> Here we have a cute little piece, something like a cross between a roommate rom-com, ghostbusters, and (I must admit) supernatural. The plot will develop further than the summary, just want to keep some things secret. Hope everyone enjoys!

“You were right,” says Ciel, gazing down the hallway of the large mansion as he pockets his eyepatch, revealing his marked eye to the world. “It’s a poltergeist. Ugh, this is going to be a workout.”

“Ha!” says Lizzie, putting a glowing green jar of fairy dust back into her large tote. “And you said it was fairies.” 

“I said it _might_ be fairies,” says Ciel irritably. “From the description, it sounded like fairies.” 

“Look at you, Mr. Bigshot Exorcist, not knowing your fairies from your poltergeists.” Lizzie’s aura is a glowing orange-red, so smug Ciel can barely look at it. 

“Well, Ms. Manager, would you like to go tell Peeves over there to knock it off, or shall I?” says Ciel, gesturing to the poltergeist. This would be more effective if Lizzie could see what the spirit looked like; but as it is currently pushing a piano down the stairs in a violent display of distorted keys and loud thuds, he thinks that Lizzie will get the picture. 

And she does. “No thank you,” says Lizzie, shaking her head. “I’ll leave that job to you. I’m the people person, remember?” 

“Just go tell them it’s a poltergeist, and give them the price range,” says Ciel impatiently. 

Lizzie nods. “Will do.” Before she turns to leave, she leans forward to give Ciel a kiss on the cheek, with her traditional line of: “Be careful.” 

“Will do,” Ciel echoes, but sincerely. 

She nods, satisfied, and exits the house, leaving Ciel alone with one very active poltergeist.

Poltergeists aren’t like other spirits who can be banished by burning the body and/or leftover DNA of the person who once lived, or convinced to move on to the afterlife when their leftover affairs have been settled. Poltergeists are trickier; this is because they are assholes who like to destroy houses for fun. 

“Hey, piano man!” calls Ciel, walking towards the spirit. 

Piano Man, previously stomping on the remains of the now-deceased piano, turns to look at him in surprise. “You… see me?” 

“Unfortunately,” Ciel drawls, stopping a few feet away. 

Piano Man isn’t exactly a prize to look at; he was clearly an attractive young man once, with silvery white hair pulled into a ponytail and a lean athlete’s physique. Death, however, has not been kind to him; his eyes are bloodshot, his body looks like it’s rotting, and part of his face is missing, showing the bones of his jaw and teeth. Spirits always look disgusting.

“How dare you?” says Piano Man, form flickering slightly in anger.

“Can we just cut to the chase?” says Ciel, checking his watch. “You’re a poltergeist; destroying this home for shits and giggles. My client wants you out. This can be easy or hard; it’s up to you.”

Piano Man blinks. “What do you mean, your client wants me out? This is my home! I live here! No one tells me to leave! Especially not some kid!”

“So it’s gonna be hard, I guess,” says Ciel evenly, trying not to let the ‘kid’ remark get to him (For fuck’s sake, he knows he’s got a baby face. But he’s twenty five, goddamnit). “That’s fine. One way or another, I’m kicking your sorry ass out.” 

Piano Man glares at him, levitating a few inches in the air. “We’ll see about that.” 

He holds out a hand and Ciel immediately closes his blue eye, seeing a faint violet and luminescent trace of vapor rise above him. Quickly he jumps out of the way of whatever’s about to fall on him—it turns out to be a bowling ball, of all things. Go figure. 

Seeing Ciel’s narrow escape, Piano Man roars; now Ciel has to evade bursts of disgusting ectoplasm as he runs towards the poltergeist, pulling out his trusty iron dagger.

It’s always satisfying to stab a poltergeist, and this time is no exception. This time the spirit screams in agony, and disperses in a haze of strong winds and vapor battering Ciel’s face. Once it’s finished Ciel stoops over, hands on his knees, and pants for a moment. He’s never been the most athletic; that’s why spirits are so tough for him to exorcise. 

But hey, he’ll just have to charge extra. 

He leaves the house after collecting himself, and is immediately rushed at by three different people. 

First Lizzie, who hugs him tightly as she always does when he finishes a successful exorcist. Then the client, a regal old woman named Victoria Queen, and her son, Phipps. They both share the poltergeist’s white hair and certain facial features, but are decidedly more stern. Especially Victoria, who reminds Ciel distinctly of his Aunt Frances. 

“Have you removed the aberration from my home?” demands Victoria. 

Ciel nods, dreading the news he’s about to deliver. “Mrs. Queen, you did mention the fact that you had another son, right?” 

“Yes, my Grey,” says Victoria with a nod. “He died not too long ago.” Her eyes widen. “What are you saying?” 

“May I see a picture of him?” says Ciel. Phipps nods and pulls out his phone, finding a picture of a living version of the poltergeist Ciel just fought, flipping off the camera. “Yes, Mrs. Queen. I’m sorry to tell you this, but your son was haunting your home, as a poltergeist. They can spring up any time after death, and usually just want to cause trouble for the sake of causing trouble.”

Victoria purses her lips, looking furious, and Ciel braces himself for the storm. Then: “That disgraceful lowlife. Nothing but trouble when he was alive, and even more of a nuisance now that he’s dead.” 

“Mother,” says Phipps, “Please.” But he doesn’t look like he disagrees. 

“Um,” says Ciel. “Sorry to hear about that. Has my manager discussed my fee with you?” 

Victoria nods, and passes over a check. Ciel looks at the amount and nods, keeping his poker face—Lizzie took his advice and asked for more money from a wealthier client. 

As soon as they’re in the car and out of sight of the house, however, Ciel leans over and gives his favorite cousin a kiss on the cheek. “I can’t believe you actually listened to me! I thought you said overcharging was ‘unethical’!”

Lizzie sighs. “I did! And I still think that! But that woman was so rich, and kind of nasty… She deserved to lose a little money, even if she was being haunted by that total jerk of a son. You know he cut holes in all of her underwear? She was telling me—“

“I don’t need to hear about old lady underwear,” says Ciel, cutting her off. “Allow me to change the subject to the ridiculously nice dinner we’re going to have tonight in celebration—“

“Actually,” says Lizzie, looking guilty as she watches the road. “I have a date tonight.” 

“Oh, look at _you_ ,” says Ciel sarcastically, but without acid. “Who’s the lucky gentleman?” 

Now he’s astonished to see Lizzie blush. “Lady, actually.” 

“Whaaaat?” he says, sitting up. “I didn’t know you were into that!”

Lizzie shrugs. “We met at a cafe; she was really cute and smart and… very into me. So. I’m giving it a chance.” 

“Well,” says Ciel, mulling over this new revelation. “That’s great, Liz! What’s her name?” He pulls out his phone, prepared to Facebook search this new love interest of Lizzie’s.

“Sieglinde Sullivan,” says Lizzie, completely aware of what Ciel is about to do. 

Ciel types the name in, and isn’t surprised to find that the woman is incredibly good looking; big emerald green eyes and a short black bob. “Nice catch.” 

“I get only the best, dear cousin,” says Lizzie with a smile.

“Well… enjoy yourself!” says Ciel, finding it difficult to think of anything else to say. “Yeah.” He sits back, feeling somehow betrayed. 

After a few minutes, Lizzie breaks the silence. “Ciel, when are you going to start dating again?” 

“Oh, not this again,” says Ciel in exasperation. “Lizzie, I have neither the time nor the interest to date.”

“So you claim,” says Lizzie. “But I had to stop making you watch rom coms with me because you keep making sad puppy eyes at the screen!”

“That’s a filthy lie!” Ciel says indignantly. “I don’t make ‘puppy eyes’, my eyes glaze over because I’m so _bored_!”

Lizzie sighs. “Ciel Phantomhive, shut your lying mouth. Deep down under all that snark is a mushy-gushy hopeless romantic, just waiting to break out. It’ll happen, and it’ll happen hard.” 

Ciel snorts. “Just drive the car, manager.” 

 

* * *

 

Whenever Ciel tells someone he’s s an exorcist, they always look at him with the most interesting mixture of awe and pity. “That’s so impressive,” they say, but often in the same breath they add, “God, how do you stand it?”

And Ciel just shrugs and puts on a world-weary tone, saying something along the lines of, “It’s a difficult job, but someone has to do it.” 

But that’s only so he can make money off of them and their friends later on. 

The truth is, being an exorcist is a pretty sweet deal. Freelance work with no boss, just Ciel and his manager/friend/cousin (who handles the people so Ciel doesn’t have to comfort anyone who’s pissing their pants in fear). The money’s good, especially when they get rich folks like Victoria Queen. And it’s not like the ghostbusters—no expensive, heavy, complex machinery. Just a few scattered occult items, some books from the library, that trusty iron dagger, and some salt. And The Book, of course.

The only drawback to Ciel’s business is that it’s only him, and he isn’t exactly a perfect physical specimen. Bigger game—like groups of spirits all attracted to one house—or tougher game—like werewolves or vampires—is too much for him, so he loses a lot of money to his competitors. 

He does have a bit of an edge over most exorcists, though: his ‘evil eye’, as Lizzie likes to call it. His right eye, made violet with an elaborate mark containing a pentagram stamped on to it. His marked eye, the reason why he wears an eyepatch despite being able to see with it perfectly. 

Besides being an interesting secret to trust people with, the eye has proved to be his ace in the hole in regards to exorcism. Supernatural creatures all have the ability to disguise themselves from the human gaze, all of them in different ways. Spirits turn invisible, demons look human, vampires turn into bats, etc. But as long as he’s looking through his marked eye, Ciel can see every one of their dirty little secrets. 

Another bonus of the marked eye, of course, is that the experience of getting it traumatized him so badly that he’s never feared a supernatural creature again.

And, of course, the experience also gave him The Book. But more about that later on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Sebastian wasn't exactly in this chapter. He will be coming very soon! 
> 
> And if all goes according to plan, I should update weekly!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What seems like a pretty typical demonic exorcism is undoubtedly more than meets the eye, and Ciel gains a new thorn in his side.

A week later, Ciel is lounging on the couch in his decently-sized apartment, watching House Hunters and eating cheese puffs when Lizzie calls him and tells him about a new job.

“He wants you to come today,” she informs him through the phone.

“What is it?” says Ciel with a sigh, looking at his cheese puffs longingly. 

“Who cares what it is?” exclaims Lizzie. “Do you know what he’s offering to pay?”

When she tells him, Ciel nearly drops the puffs. “When’s the soonest you can get here?” 

“Thought you’d say that,” says Lizzie happily. “I’m already on my way.”

 

* * *

 

“So what exactly are we looking at?” Ciel says as he gets into the passenger seat of Lizzie’s car, closing the door, and making himself comfortable.

A bit too comfortable, as he well knows. “Feet off of the dash, Ciel, _honestly_ ,” sighs Lizzie, leaning over to swat at Ciel’s legs. “It’s as if you were born in a barn.” 

Ciel sticks his tongue out at her, but puts his feet down. “What are we looking at?” he repeats as Lizzie puts the car in gear.

“Your standard demonic tormenting, I think,” says Lizzie, eyes on the road. “The guy’s name is Arthur Wordsmith, and he’s at his wits end.” 

“Ugh, demons,” says Ciel, leaning his head back. “I fucking hate them.” 

“I really don’t know why you dislike them so much,” says Lizzie. “I mean, they suck, sure, like the whole bad-touch game is the worst, but at least there’s the easy latin to take care of them.” 

Ciel groans, remembering how sexual demons can be. “Fuck my goddamn life. A hundred bucks says I get groped today.” 

“I’m not taking that bet,” admits Lizzie, getting onto the highway. 

Arthur Wordsmith turns out to be a lanky, mousy-brown haired nervous wreck of a man, fidgeting with his tie as he runs out to meet Ciel and Lizzie. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here!” he says, reaching out to shake their hands. Lizzie does so first, making a subtle face at Ciel, which Ciel doesn’t understand until it’s his turn to shake and feel how clammy the man’s hand is. When Arthur isn’t looking, Ciel wipes his hand on his pants. 

“Nice to meet you,” says Lizzie with a beaming smile and a sunny yellow aura. “Don’t worry, sir, Ciel is very good at what he does. Your house will be good and exorcised by the end of today.”

“Oh, thank god,” says Arthur, smiling wearily. “It would be so nice to be able to sleep again.” 

Ciel lifts up his eyepatch and shuts his other eye. Sure enough, black tendrils are creeping all over the house—it’s undeniably a demon.

“Tell me what has been happening to you,” he says, not taking his eye off of the house. 

“Well… um,” says Arthur. “At first it was just nightmares—horrible, horrible nightmares. Which I didn’t mind so much. Because I’m a writer, actually, and it was good inspiration… anyway. Then I started waking up in the middle of the night and finding a man sitting at the edge of my bed, just… smiling at me. Like he was… well.”

“Did it rape you, Mr. Wordsmith?” says Ciel matter-of-factly. 

Arthur sputters. “God, no! Thank god, no. But I do think he’s taken control of my body on more than one occasion. I have days where I lose time, where I wake up in strange bars or highways. It’s been hell, it really has.” 

“It’s toying with you before it eats your soul,” muses Ciel. “Demons like to play with their food.” 

“My soul?” says Arthur faintly. 

“You poor man; you’ve been through so much,” Lizzie says, putting a hand on Arthur’s shoulder. “Ciel, is it a demon?” Ciel nods, and Lizzie immediately reaches into her tote. After a moment of searching, she digs out The Book—a nondescript looking tome with faded illegible golden letters on a worn brown cover. 

Ciel takes The Book from her, thumbing through it until he finds the page on demonic exorcisms. He has the latin mostly memorized, but wants a quick refresher before he steps into Arthur Wordsmith’s own personal hell.

After Lizzie’s traditional kiss on the cheek, he’s ready. 

Stepping into the house—smaller and more shabby that Victoria Queen’s luxurious mansion—he’s unsurprised to find it totally silent. Demons like building up a creepy atmosphere; they’re a lot more subtle than ghosts. A lot more cunning, too.

“Alright, can we not play this game again?” he calls. “I know you’re a demon, you know I’m an exorcist. Can we just skip all the the spooky atmosphere and pea soup vomiting?” 

“ _Now, where’s the fun in that_?” The voice is disembodied, sounding like it’s coming from everywhere at once. It’s two-toned, one part seductive croon and one part ungodly croak, and it makes shivers go up Ciel’s spine. 

“Why does this have to be fun?” he says, trying not to whirl around in search of the voice’s source as he continues to walk into the house. “It’s just a paycheck for me.” 

The demon makes a tutting sound. “ _So disappointing_ ,” they say, but they sound intrigued. “ _Normally exorcists are so eager to show off_.” 

“Normally exorcists are hacks,” says Ciel as he stops in front of a mirror and removes his eyepatch. “I’m the real deal.” 

“ _Oh? We’ll see about that_ ,” says the demon. “ _I suppose you’ll have to find me first_ —“

“You’re behind me,” interrupts Ciel smugly. He sees the demon as a black silhouette in the mirror, its arms wrapped around him without actually touching him. “Trying to find a way to possess me. Unfortunately for you, it’s not gonna happen.” 

Silence from the demon, who’s clearly shocked speechless; Ciel can see its form stiffen in the mirror. Then, after a long pause: “ _You are the real deal_.” The shadows surrounding Ciel float down the hallway away from him, collecting and solidifying into a being. Ciel braces himself for the spine-chilling sight of a demon’s true form—even as jaded as he is, demons are fucking terrifying. But instead of the expected nightmare, the shadows form an admittedly gorgeous man—tall, slim but built, high cheekbones, and seductive crimson eyes.

Not that Ciel is buying the disguise for a second. He can see the pitch black aura surrounding the demon—only demons have black auras. 

“Mind telling me why I can’t possess you?” says the demon, his voice now only smooth, deep, and pleasing. “I promise, I’m only curious.”

Ciel snorts. “Sure. Want me to reveal my fatal flaw, while I’m at it? I’m not fucking stupid.” 

“Now, now, theres no need for such language,” purrs the demon, stepping towards Ciel. “We can keep this civil.” 

Ciel takes a step back before he can stop himself, and curses his own cowardice. “Alright, I’m finished with this farce. Will you leave that poor man alone and return to whence you came?”

“Mmmm, I’m not so keen to go back to hell just yet,” says the demon thoughtfully. 

“Thought so,” Ciel says. Then he takes a deep breath and starts the exorcism.

The latin itself isn’t so bad, once you gain proficiency in it. It’s keeping up the latin whilst you’re in the presence of a demon that’s very reluctant to get exorcised that’s the difficult part. Ciel has been groped, pinched, punched, mocked, and assaulted with various blunt objects while he has performed exorcisms. This demon seems more powerful than most, so he readies himself for the worst. 

But the demon just blinks at him, smiling lazily. “The latin trips off your tongue so nicely, little exorcist,” he says. 

Ciel, without skipping a syllable, flips him off and continues to read (he does feel his face heat up, however). 

The demon grimaces as his form begins to flicker back to shadows, smoke rising from his figure. “Must we cut this off so quickly?” he manages through his obvious discomfort. “I’d so like to get to know you more.” 

But Ciel continues to chant, knife still at the ready, wondering why this demon isn’t putting up a fight. The demon sighs, bowing his head. “Very well then. I suppose you’ve given me no other choice.” 

Ciel finishes the exorcism, and the demon bursts into black smoke that quickly dissipates, leaving him alone in the house.

“How did it go?” says Lizzie as soon as she sees him leave the house.

“Weirdly well,” says Ciel, shrugging. “Mr. Wordsmith, your demon is gone.” 

“Oh thank you!” says Arthur, reaching forward to shake his hand eagerly. “Thank you so much!”

He gives Ciel a generous check; that, along with Victoria Queen’s money from last week, will be enough to support Ciel for a while. But Ciel can’t celebrate as much as he’d like to.

“What’s wrong with you?” says Lizzie as she pulls up to his apartment building. “You’re oddly quiet.” 

Ciel shakes his head. “Nothing,” he says. “Just tired from the exorcism.” But he can’t shake the feeling that something was off.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Ciel wakes up to the dulcet tones of a woman moaning orgasmically. It’s not exactly how he’s accustomed to getting up, and he looks around in bleary confusion before realizing it’s coming from the living room. 

He rolls out of bed, yawning largely. He walks out of the door, into the living room, and his jaw drops. 

The demon from yesterday is sitting on his couch, watching pay-per-view porn on his television.

The demon from yesterday. On his couch. Pay-per-view porn.

It’s a lot to take in.

The demon turns to face Ciel and smiles charmingly. “Good morning, Ciel,” he says, eyes roving up and down the exorcist’s body. “You look enchanting in that night shirt.” 

Ciel blushes furiously, pulling down his bunched-up night shirt so that it covers his boxer briefs. “Stop looking at me!”

“Very well, then,” says the demon, turning around and settling back into the couch to watch his pay-per-view porn. 

“And stop watching my pay-per-view!” snaps Ciel, unable to think of anything else to say. He strides forward to grab the remote and turn off the tv. “Fuck’s sake! I’m already paying for an apartment in the city, do you think I have the funds to fund your stupid lecherous demonic—“

He chokes on the words in his mouth when the demon, quick as lightning, reaches out to grab his wrists and pin him to the nearest wall, hands above his head. “ _I was watching that_ ,” he says, eyes blazing red and fangs showing. 

Ciel swallows the lump in his throat. “This is my apartment,” he says softly, trying to keep his voice free of tremors. “And I want you out of it.” 

He starts the exorcism, but this time the demon barely winces, managing a smile as he steps back, puts his hands on his hips, and raises an eyebrow. “Because that worked so well before.” 

Ciel’s own eyebrows raise in alarm as he continues to chant and the demon is relatively unaffected. He steps back as he speaks, looking around the room for his iron dagger. Finally he finishes, and the demon is still standing in front of him, looking very pleased. “You’re… still here?” 

“Oh, don’t sound so disappointed,” says the demon, feigning a pout. “You’re going to hurt my feelings.” 

“Fuck you,” says Ciel immediately, turning to look frantically for the dagger. “One way or another, you’re getting out of my apartment.” 

“Looking for this?” He hears, before turning around slowly to find the demon teasingly dangling the dagger between his thumb and forefinger. 

“Give. It. Back,” he spits. 

“Oh, you want it back?” says the demon lightly. Instantly Ciel is pinned against the wall again, this time with the dagger pressed against his throat. “Shall I give it to you by lodging it in your neck? Or perhaps your heart? Wouldn’t it be ironic for the exorcist to be killed by his own knife, before his soul is devoured by a demon?” 

Ciel swallows, feeling the dagger bite into his skin. For the first time since the incident so many years ago, he feels fear creeping in. The exorcism has never failed, not once. “Before you kill me,” he says calmly, “Can you explain why the exorcism didn’t work?”

The demon sniffs. “You didn’t give me the privilege of knowing why I couldn’t possess you before exorcizing me,” he sniffs. “Why should I tell you anything before I kill you?” 

Ciel grunts in annoyance. “Fine. You want to know?” he says. What the hell, he’s going to die anyway. And Lizzie will—no. Best not to think of Lizzie right now. 

“Actually, yes,” says the demon, and the dagger lessens its pressure on Ciel’s throat just a tad. 

“My eye,” says Ciel. “It’s marked. Nothing has ever been able to possess me; it’s how I saw where you were in the house, too.” 

“Your eye?” says the demon. He takes the dagger off Ciel’s throat and slips it under the string of the eyepatch (Ciel shivers as he feels the cold dagger against his skin), slicing it in half. The eyepatch falls away, and Ciel’s marked eye is revealed to the world. 

Ciel blinks as his marked eye adjusts to the light of the room. When he can see again, he finds the demon looking at the mark in surprise. “That’s… my seal,” the demon says, bemused. “That’s my mark.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are very much appreciated! And if any of you are wondering, I've already written some smut scenes ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out Ciel's new roommate is a colossal, colossal jerk. But there's definitely a silver lining...

“What do you mean, ‘it’s your mark’?” says Ciel.

“I mean, it’s my mark,” says the demon, stepping back and showing ciel the back of his left hand, where the same mark is present. “Every demon has a specific sigil that we use as identification, and we mark our chosen humans with them for various reasons.” Then he chuckles, before saying, “This explains why you weren’t able to exorcise me, and why no demon can possess you.” 

“You… this is _yours_?” says Ciel, bringing a hand up to his eye. “That’s… so why can’t I exorcise you? Because you’re bound to me through this?” 

The demon nods, frowning. “Precisely. But this doesn’t make any sense; when did I possibly mark you?” 

Suddenly, Ciel puts the pieces together and recoils, hitting his back against the wall again. “So it was you,” he spits.

“What was me?” 

“Fifteen years ago,” elaborates Ciel. “You were there.”

 

* * *

 

Nine-year-old Ciel was a happy, bubbly kid. He liked dinosaurs, sweets, playing with his cousin Lizzie, and all that normal nine-year-old stuff. 

And for most of the first day of his tenth birthday, Ciel was still as happy and bubbly as ever. It was snowing, he was going Christmas shopping with his beloved parents, and his mother had promised that she would not only read him as many stories as he wanted, but also let him sleep in their bed tonight. A ten-year-old kid couldn’t ask for a better birthday.

But as they made their way through the busy city streets, one rude stranger elbowed his way in between Ciel and his parents, separating them. Rachel and Vincent, so wrapped up in a discussion about what presents to buy for which relatives, didn’t notice immediately that their son had fallen behind. 

But by the time they noticed, it was too late. 

After twenty minutes of fruitless searching, they got the police involved. Even then, it took until the sun came up for a policewoman to find a catatonic Ciel, lying in the snow in front of a nearby hospital, clutching a mysterious book in his shaking arms. He’d lost his warm winter coat and boots, and was clad in only pants and a shirt that was in tatters, soaked in his blood from a deep cut on his abdomen. He was suffering from shock, blood loss, and frostbite. He had a new mark on his eye, that was hard to see through the blood from a burst vessel. On his birthday. Right before Christmas.

When he woke up a little less than a week later, the doctors said that it was a miracle that he was alive. 

Many therapists throughout the years after that fateful birthday tried to get Ciel to piece together what had happened that night. But every time they tried, all they got were words like “monster” and “knife” before Ciel had a lengthy panic attack that would set him back in his recovery. And those words didn’t help much, considering that the marked eye made it obvious that something supernatural was involved. There were so many supernatural beings out there…

So they stopped asking, and Ciel never brung it up of his own volition. In fact, soon after they stopped asking, he stopped remembering, and honestly? He was happier that way. 

Well, ‘happier’ being a relative term. He had never quite gotten back to being that happy, bubbly kid he once was. He still smiled occasionally, but for the most part had turned into a sour, sardonic teenager prone to fits of depression and panic attacks that were caused by triggers unknown to him. 

Basically, the experience had almost ruined his life. 

 

* * *

 

“Where was I?” says the demon, still confused.

Ciel is shaking with anger. “I think you know very well. You took me when I was younger, did _god knows what_ to me…“ He can’t even finish the thought.

“Ah,” says the demon, nodding slowly, a slight smile appearing on his face. “I remember now. You were the little boy near Christmastime. But I’m not so sure you’re remembering correctly. You were taken by—“

He’s interrupted when Ciel slaps him harshly across the face. “I was taken by _you._ I remember it now. Your horrible red eyes…” He shudders violently, feeling himself starting to slip into another panic attack. 

He’s so busy panicking, in fact, that he fails to say the brief flash of hurt in the demon’s eyes, quickly replaced with a mask of exasperation. “I didn’t mean any harm. Just wanted to have a little fun, that’s all.”

“You nearly killed me!” bellows Ciel, sinking to the floor when his knees get too weak to support him. “What did you do to me…” 

“Hey,” says the demon, frowning. “Are you having a fit or something?” He stoops down to get a closer look, only to be swatted away.

“Don’t touch me!” cries Ciel. “Stay away! Stay away from me!”

His marked eye glows as he makes the command, and the demon sighs as he stands up. “I suppose I have no other choice.” 

The demon leaves the apartment, stepping into the hallway and shutting the door behind him. Now a bit more at ease, Ciel puts his head between his legs and gasps for air, waiting for his heart to stop pounding.

After a while, he feels himself calming down, and leans back against the wall in relief. He shuts his eyes, and for a moment everything is back to normal. 

Then there’s a polite knock at the door. “Your heartbeat has slowed down. Feeling better?” 

Ciel tenses again. “I thought I told you to fuck off!”

“Actually,” says the demon, voice muffled through the door, “You told me to stay away from you. And this is technically staying away from you.”

“And since when is a demon so focused on technicalities?”

“Since… oh, never mind. It’s hardly important.”

Now Ciel’s curiosity is peaked. “Sounds important to me. Tell me, this instant.” 

He hears a sigh through the door. “If you must know, I’m only focused on the technicalities because you wear my mark. I’m bound to you now, and must fulfill your every order.”

Ciel lets that sink in for a moment. “Come inside,” he says finally.

The demon does, walking inside and eyeing Ciel in trepidation. It’s very clear that he didn’t exactly want to give away that particular secret.

“So you’re telling me that you have to do everything I say,” Ciel says evenly. 

“Everything you _order_ ,” qualifies the demon. “And it’s only within reason. I can’t do anything that will harm you, or anything that will seriously harm myself.”

“And how, pray tell, did we get this bond between us in the first place?” says Ciel, folding his arms.

The demon tilts his head for a moment, as if lost in thought, then shrugs. “Don’t remember.”

“Wonderful,” says Ciel, hands tightly clenched into fists. Just what he needs, to be chained to his worst childhood nightmare. “Why are you not just eating my soul and going on your merry way?” 

“Ugh, I’m not that kind of demon,” says the demon, wrinkling his nose. “I have my aesthetics, after all. I look for the perfect soul, and cultivate it until it’s ripe for eating. And you, Ciel Phantomhive, do not have the perfect soul.”

“Well then,” says Ciel, trying not to feel offended. “How exactly do we break the bond?” 

The demon sighs. “Normally bonds are made with a clear purpose in mind. A contract, if you will. Once that purpose is fulfilled, the bond is over. But considering neither of us remember why we formed the bond in the first place… that makes things tricky.” 

Ciel sighs. _Is nothing easy?_ “So what do you propose we do?” 

“I propose,” says the demon thoughtfully, “That we break the bond. As soon as possible.” 

 “I am in complete agreement with you on that,” says Ciel. _Then I can exorcise you and send you back to hell where you belong._ “What does breaking the bond entail?”

Now it’s the demon’s turn to sigh. “Time,” he says. “And labor. In order to break a bond, I need more power; I’m too weak to do it right now.”

“Well I’m not letting you have any souls,” says Ciel immediately. “No innocent people are going to die for this.”

“I thought you might say that,” the demon says, rolling his eyes. “There’s another way I can get power, though: the exorcism of spirits.” 

Ciel blinks. “What, really?”

The demon nods. “When a spirit is exorcised, they briefly release a very specific supernatural energy into the air. Demons can feed off of it.” 

“Ok,” says Ciel, a plan coming together in his head. “So you come along with me when I exorcise people, like my assistant, or—“ Suddenly, a thought occurs to him, and a smile creeps its way onto his face. “Wait a minute.” 

“What?” the demon says, looking uneasy. “Why are you smiling? This isn’t good news for you, there’s no reason to smile.”

“Oh yes there is,” says Ciel, tilting his head up to look the demon directly in the eyes. “Demon. Punch yourself in the face and make it hurt. That’s an order.”

Immediately the demon does as he’s told, punching himself hard enough so that it looks somewhat painful. He glares down at Ciel. “What in hell’s name was that about?”  

“You traumatized me for life,” says Ciel evenly. 

The demon huffs. “I… yes. But—“ 

“You’re not going to be my assistant,” says Ciel. “You’re going to be my dog.” 

“Oh, please no,” the demon says immediately, looking even more upset at this than the punch in the face. “I loathe dogs.”

“Tough,” says Ciel. “You’ll do whatever I say, make my food, my bed, clean my house, anything else. Is that clear?” 

The demon grinds his teeth. If looks could kill, Ciel would be very severely injured. “ _Yes_.” 

“Yes, what?” prompts Ciel with a grin. 

“Yes,  _my lord_ .”

“Oh,” says Ciel, somewhat surprised. He was expecting something more along the lines of ‘Yes, sir.’ “Sure. Anyway, now you need a name.” 

“Demons don’t—“

“I _know_ demons aren’t given names,” he says as he waves an impatient hand. “But I’m not going to call you “demon” for the next few months we spend together. That’s weird, and I don’t want everyone knowing I have a demon chained to me.” 

“You think I want other demons knowing I’m tied to a brat?” murmurs the demon under his breath. 

Ciel narrows his eyes. “Well, how about Sebastian?”

The demon looks up, somewhat intrigued. “I… like that,” he says. “It actually fits me. Tha—“

“It was my old dog’s name,” interrupts Ciel with a smirk on his face.

Sebastian—as he will now be called—closes his mouth and glares. “I really, really despise dogs, you know.” 

“Woof,” says Ciel, before turning and heading back into his bedroom. “I’m gonna go change. Make me breakfast: pancakes, eggs, and bacon. That’s an order.”

“Whatever you wish,” Sebastian calls to his retreating back, and Ciel can hear that it’s through gritted teeth.

 

* * *

 

“You _WHAT_?”

Ciel swears and holds the phone away from his ear, as he was nearly just deafened by his cousin. “Lizzie, please, keep your voice down—“

“Sorry, sorry,” says Lizzie over the phone after a moment, sounding a bit calmer. “But let me clarify. Ciel fucking Phantomhive… are you telling me… that you bound your _damn fool self_ to a demon???” 

“Y-yes,” Ciel softly admits.

“And not just any demon. The _same demon_ who traumatized you when you were a child?” 

“Yes…”

“YOU FUCKING IDIOT!”

“Keep your voice down, _please_!” says Ciel desperately, waving an arm as if he could control her voice. 

“Why, to save your eardrums? You deserve to have your eardrums blown out, you little moron! You just—“

“No, because he’s in the other room and he’s got supernaturally good hearing,” murmurs Ciel, rolling over on his bed so he can prop himself up with one elbow. 

“I can hear every word, even if you whisper,” calls Sebastian from the other room. Ciel can hear the smugness in his voice.

He makes a disgusted noise. “Honestly. The lack of privacy is the worst thing about this.” 

“Oh, I sincerely doubt that,” snaps Lizzie, sounding like she’s on the verge of angry tears. “I think that the worst thing about this is that my beloved baby cousin’s soul is going to be eaten by a demon!”

“Lizzie, for fuck’s sake, please relax,” Ciel says, trying and failing to soothe. “He’s not gonna eat my soul; it’s part of our arrangement.” 

“Oh, well then! That’s all fine and good!” says Lizzie sarcastically. “And what, pray tell, is your arrangement?” 

So Ciel explains the situation—ignoring Sebastian’s little qualifying remarks through the bedroom door—and when he’s done, Lizzie seems a little pacified. 

“He really punched himself in the face?” 

Ciel chuckles. “Yeah, he really did. I’m telling you, Liz, he really has to do whatever I say. He made me breakfast this morning.”

“No shit! How was it?” 

“Amazing. He can really cook, the eggs were—well, whatever. Not the point now, anyway.”

“SO what _is_ the point?”

Ciel smiles. “The point is that now we have a supernatural servant to do whatever we say. Well, whatever I say. Exorcisms are going to get a lot easier now…” 

“This is slave labor,” calls Sebastian from the other room, but Ciel and Lizzie ignore him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for reading another chapter of Demonology! Just a heads up: I'm in Georgia right now on vacation, so I am not a hundred percent sure that I'll update next Friday. If I don't make it, I'll push the update back a week, to the Friday after next. Many apologies in advance if that happens.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The unlikely trio takes on their first case together!

A few hours later, Lizzie rings the doorbell. Ciel walks by Sebastian—who’s still pouting on the couch—to let her in.

“Ok, let me see him,” she says, cracking her knuckles as she walks in the door. “I want to see the bastard who—“

“Hello,” says Sebastian quickly, standing up and holding out his hand, giving her a smooth smile that Ciel’s stomach has yet to stop flipping in response to.

“Holy _shit_ ,” says Lizzie, refusing the handshake. “You’re incredibly handsome.” 

Sebastian’s smile turns smug. “Thank you,” he says, giving Ciel a brief look. “You’re quite enchanting yourself.” 

“Ok, that’s quite enough,” snaps Ciel. “No flirting with my cousin, back off.” 

“Please,” scoffs Lizzie, tossing her head. “I don’t think I need you to defend my honor, Ciel. Plus, I’m kind of focused on someone else right now…” She gives her cousin a baleful look.

Ciel claps a hand over his mouth in horror. “Oh, Lizzie, I’m the worst, I’m so sorry! How was your date?”

“I don’t actually blame you, don’t worry,” says Lizzie with a wave of her hand. “You had a lot on your plate. It was really nice.” 

“Yeah?” says Ciel. 

“Yeah,” says Lizzie, a pleased grin on her face. “I really liked her.” 

“Oh, how sweet,” purrs Sebastian sarcastically. “Human love. So quaint and primitive.”

“Oh, shut up,” Lizzie and Ciel say in unison.

“Just because you demons live in an endless tormented spiral of bitterness doesn’t mean I can’t be happy,” Lizzie says cheerily, socking the demon hard in the arm.

“Oh,” says Sebastian, bringing a hand to the place of contact. “That… hurt more than I expected.” 

“Lizzie can bench-press me,” Ciel informs him, while Lizzie flexes. “Also, as you recall, I ordered you not to fuck with her. Two reasons not to fuck with her.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” says Sebastian, holding up his hands innocently. “I want nothing more than to get along with both of your lovely selves.”

“Ugh,” says Lizzie, glaring at him. “You’re gross.” 

“You wound me, my lady,” says Sebastian, placing a hand on his heart. “I simply want to—“ 

“Ok, enough out of you,” Ciel says with a wave of his hand. “Lizzie, do we have any jobs?” 

“Hang on a moment, lemme look,” says Lizzie, pulling out her iPhone in its fluffy pink case. “Yeah, we have something,” she adds after a moment of scrolling. “Apparently the town of Campania is being plagued by a horde of zombies that come nightly. I dismissed it because I assumed it was too much for you, but with Sebastian…” 

“He can do it,” says Ciel firmly. 

“Hang on, do I even get a choice in the matter?” Sebastian protests.

Ciel chuckles. “Absolutely not. Best case scenario, you kill the zombies and Lizzie and I get a massive paycheck. Worst case scenario, you die, I’m free of you forever, and Lizzie and I beat a hasty retreat back to the car.” 

The demon crosses his arms, pouting again. “I feel so loved.”

“Shut up and stop pouting,” says Lizzie briskly. “Death is too good for you; you hurt Ciel so badly.”

Sebastian breathes heavily through his nose. “I suppose…” 

“So it’s settled then,” Ciel says. “Lizzie, I’ll grab my coat and we can leave.” 

 

* * *

 

The town of Campania is an idyllic little village—or at least, it looks like it’s supposed to be idyllic. In actuality, it looks like something off the Walking Dead, minus the zombies. It’s stark, abandoned, and surrounded by an eerie forest. 

But of course, Ciel, Lizzie, and Sebastian have arrived to Campania just before the sun’s setting in the evening. The zombies haven’t yet arrived. 

No one is around, of course—all of the residents who could left have left. But there are people left barricaded in the center of town, and the zombies still come. So Ciel and Lizzie have been hired to clear Campania of the undead and rescue the civilians. A daunting job, for just the two of them. But with a super-powered demonic entity…

“Someone’s probably cursed this town,” says Lizzie thoughtfully as they scope out the battleground. 

Ciel nods. “Someone pissed off another someone who has voodoo know-how.” He undoes his eyepatch and examines the town carefully. “There’s voodoo energy all over. If I can find the seal that’s causing the dead to rise and destroy it, this should end pretty quickly.” 

“And the reason why we had to wait until nighttime—when the zombies will be out—is because…?” says Sebastian irritably. 

Both Lizzie and Ciel look at him in exasperation. 

“The seal activates at night,” says Lizzie, her tone saying _you idiot._ “Ciel won’t be able to find it during the day. You’re a supernatural creature; why do you know nothing about the supernatural?” 

Sebastian scowls, drawing himself up and puffing out his chest. “As if I, a demon, would concern myself with mere _zombies_. They’re brainless, coarse, and disgusting.” 

“You’re disgusting, too,” Ciel informs him. 

“I’m _gorgeous_ ,” says Sebastian proudly. 

“Ugh,” say Lizzie and Ciel. 

By now the sun has almost set completely, and a faint groaning can be heard from the surrounding forest. 

“It’s starting,” says Ciel, pulling out his trusty pistol, loaded with silver bullets. “Lizzie, are you ready?” 

“Of course,” she says with a nod, putting her duffle on the floor and pulling out two large swords. 

“Hang on, I thought you were his manager?” protests Sebastian, eyeing the swords. 

Lizzie shrugs. “Well, I don’t like ghosts or demons very much, so I don’t get involved with them. I’m not afraid of zombies, though.” She grins savagely. “They’re a lot of fun actually.” 

“Humans are so weird,” murmurs the demon. 

The first zombies are appearing from the woods now, and Ciel turns to survey the town again with his evil eye. “Ok, I see it,” he says as he spots a glowing green seal in the distance. “Great, it’s right in the center of town. Of course it is. Ok, I’m going in. You two cover me.” 

“Right,” say Sebastian and Lizzie in unison. 

Slowly they make their way through the village. After five or so minutes, a zombie lunges at them, and almost immediately falls dead from a wound to the head with a—

“Is that a _fork_?” says Lizzie, looking at Sebastian in bewilderment. 

“Why yes, it is,” Sebastian says properly, stepping forward to pick up the fork. 

Ciel exhales. “Ok, I’ll bite. Why a fork, of all things?”

Sebastian shrugs. “Why not? Forks and knives make excellent weapons. Easy to throw, easy to find.” 

“But you’re a- ugh, never mind,” snaps Ciel, looking back to make sure he hasn’t lost the zombie seal. “Let’s keep moving.” 

When they get to city hall, Ciel stops. “It’s in here,” he says. 

The door is barricaded, but that’s of course no problem for Sebastian, who kicks the door down with ridiculous ease. There’s a scream, and then there’s gunshots.

Lizzie immediately knocks Ciel down and covers him, keeping him out of harms way. Sebastian is not so lucky, and is completely riddled with bullet holes, crumpling to the ground. 

When the firing stops, Lizzie helps Ciel up, before looking over at Sebastian’s body. “Do you think he’s—“ 

“Don’t be silly,” scoffs Ciel, dusting himself off. “It’ll take more than those bullets to stop him; I bet they weren’t even silver.” He takes her hand and squeezes it, kissing her on the cheek. “Thank you, Lizzie.” 

“Don’t mention it,” says Lizzie with a smile. “Glad you’re safe.” 

“Oh my god, are you alive?” calls a voice from inside city hall.

“Yes!” calls Lizzie back, walking forward. “We’re not zombies! We’re here to help!”

“Thank god,” says the voice. In a moment, a man in a torn, dirty suit comes out of the building. He looks like he’s been through a war zone. “Sorry about the shooting, we’ve seen nothing but zombies for days—oh my god… did we shoot your friend? I’m so—“

“Who, him?” says Ciel, looking down at Sebastian. “Don’t worry, he’s not my friend. He’s my servant, and he’ll be fine when he stops being a big baby and picks himself off the floor.”

Sebastian opens his eyes, and Ciel is surprised to find himself feeling oddly relieved. Weird. “Patience is a virtue,” the demon chides, before rising to a standing position without using any support. “And since when was I your servant?” 

“Would you prefer I go back to calling you my _dog_?” say Ciel cooly. 

Sebastian grimaces. “No, thank you. Servant is fine.”

“Y-y-you’re another monster!” cries the man. At this point, several other people dressed in once-fine clothing are coming out to see what the commotion is about. Evidently when the zombies rose, there was some sort of ball or other formal event going on.

“True,” admits Sebastian, leaning over to spit out the bullets and holding them out as if he expects the man to take them. “But I’m a… friendly monster. Not by choice, but I’m here to help.” 

“Sir, we’re a team of professional exorcists,” says Lizzie, stepping forward and smiling reassuringly at the man and his cohorts. “We’ve been hired to rid the town of your undead problem. I’m Lizzie, this is Ciel, and that’s… Sebastian. He works for us, don’t worry about him.” 

“Ok…” says the man. He’s still eyeing Sebastian warily, but Lizzie is clearly charming him as she charms everyone. 

“If you’ll excuse me,” says Ciel, never as charming. He walks into the building and wrinkles his nose at the smell; yes, a zombie apocalypse doesn’t give you a lot of time to shower, but still there’s really no excuse not to at least use perfume or deodorant.

Following the sigil’s glow, he finds himself in the mayor’s office. Looking around, he sees that the sigil is probably under the mayor’s desk. He groans, trying to work up the energy to push the desk.

“Something the matter?” 

Ciel jumps and whirls around to find Sebastian smiling at him. “Give me a little warning next time!” he snaps. 

“My apologies,” purrs the demon, looking far too smug. “You’re cute when you’re startled.” 

“I hate you,” says Ciel flatly. “You’re supposed to be helping Lizzie keep the zombies at bay.” 

“Have you seen your cousin with a sword?” Sebastian counters. “She doesn’t need my help. Whereas you clearly do.” 

Ciel huffs, deciding to change the subject by pointing at the desk. “I order you to lift this; the sigil’s under there.” 

“As my lord commands.” With a casual flick of Sebastian’s finger, the desk flies and crashes into the nearest wall with a loud cracking noise. 

Ciel jumps as it crashes before glaring back at Sebastian. “Why are you like this?” he demands, but cuts the demon off before he can respond. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. Just shut up and let me work.” 

He gets on his knees and places both hands on the sigil, murmuring an incantation. Eventually, it disappears and Ciel nods in satisfaction, before standing back up again. “Right, that’s done.” He turns around to see Sebastian glaring at him. “What’s your problem?” 

Sebastian says nothing, merely raises his eyebrows and gestures meaningfully at him. 

“Didn’t mama ever teach you to use your words?” says Ciel. 

Now the demon’s eyes glow red, and Sebastian opens his mouth slightly to reveal fangs. 

“What, I don’t get what… _oh_ ,” says Ciel, a smirk appearing on his face. “I told you to shut up, didn’t I? So you had to shut up.” 

Sebastian nods, looking relieved that Ciel understands.

Ciel tilts his head, still smirking. “You know what? This is really nice. Maybe you should just stay like this.” 

Sebastian snarls, an inhuman and predatory sound, and the sound sends a chill up Ciel’s spine. 

“Fine, fine!” he snaps. “You can speak now. Happy?” 

“Ecstatic,” grumbles Sebastian, his fangs retracting into his mouth in a fascinatingly macabre way. “Can we leave here now? It smells.” 

“Ugh, tell me about it,” says Ciel, rolling his eyes in agreement. “But we need to put down the rest of these zombies first.” He starts walking back to the entrance of the city hall.

Sebastian follows him easily. “But I thought we destroyed the seal that was attracting the zombies to this town in the first place!” 

“Right, so no more will rise,” says Ciel, hearing fighting sounds and walking quicker. “But we still have to deal with the ones who have already risen.” 

They get to the entrance, and see Lizzie struggling against a wave of at least thirty zombies. She’s fast, but they’re numerous, and it’s clear she’s not going to last on her own for much longer.

Sebastian groans. “Fine. Let’s make this quick.” He races past Ciel in a blur of black,drawing the zombies to him and relieving Lizzie from the fight. 

She goes back to the survivors in city hall, while Ciel walks down the stairs of the building as a pretense of giving Sebastian back up. 

But it soon becomes very clear that the demon doesn’t need it. At first it’s fascinating, watching the monster in action. But as he watches, Ciel starts to feel sick. Images are coming back to him, images from his past.

He stumbles backward, away from the battle, hoping he won’t vomit. As he stumbles, his ankle twists and he falls on the ground, deciding to curl up there and hope the feeling will go away. Suddenly he hears a groan, and turns to see that he’s far too late to pull out his gun. Three zombies are right on top of him, reaching out and grabbing at his clothes.

He closes his eyes and winces, expecting a painful death. But it never comes; instead, he drops to the ground as sickening squelches and pops ring through the air. He opens his eyes and sees Sebastian, covered in blood, panting slightly and glaring at him. The zombies are mere fragments of flesh and blood on the ground. “Are you _stupid_?” 

“What?” says Ciel. Stupidly. 

“You were just going to let them eat you,” the demon says, holding out a hand. 

“I wasn’t feeling well,” Ciel says lamely, taking the hand and allowing himself to be lifted up. But as soon as Sebastian lets go, he crumples to the ground again, wincing. “My ankle…” 

“Oh, for crying out loud...” says Sebastian in exasperation. 

Before Ciel can respond, he’s scooped up into the demon’s arms, bridal-style. “How  _dare_ you!” he spits, thrashing before his ankle pains him too much to continue. “Go kill the rest of the zombies!”

“There are no more zombies to kill,” Sebastian informs him smugly, carrying Ciel back towards city hall. “And don’t tell me that you’re going to walk on your own with that ankle.” 

“…Fine,” grumbles Ciel, folding his arms and looking as haughty as possible. 

He regrets acquiescing to this when he sees Lizzie’s face as she realizes he’s being carried like a newly-wedded bride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys.... not to toot my own horn or anything... but I totally didn't think I'd finish this chapter on time because of my vacation and I totally did.... :)))) I'm very proud of myself!
> 
> Hope you enjoy. See you next week! (where our favourite gentlemen will get closer together)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Ciel get closer, than farther, then closer, then farther yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HA! I'M BACK! 
> 
> Betcha thought I was a goner, huh? That's what I thought for a moment, anyway--college has been crazy--but I love you all for reading and I love this story and I was NOT going down without a fight. 
> 
> Enjoy the smut :3

After Campania, there’s a lot more cases that need to be solved.

 

There’s a pack of werewolves in the suburbs, a prison haunted by the prisoners that were killed in a riot in the 60s, a vampire terrorizing a museum, and much, much more. 

 

It would be tiring, if Ciel and Lizzie didn’t have Sebastian to carry the brunt of the burden. Honestly, a lot of cases turn into Ciel leisurely chanting a counter curse as Sebastian engages in violent combat with the monster of the day as Lizzie chats it up with their client in the background. 

 

Ciel can see plainly that Sebastian resents being used as a tool only to be ignored when there’s no work to be done. When the two of them get back to the apartment, Ciel usually kicks off his shoes, flops on the couch, and curls up with his laptop, totally disregarding Sebastian’s presence. 

Occasionally, Sebastian will speak to him, but their conversations don’t last long.

 

* * *

 

“You know,” says Sebastian, reading a book and reclining on one of the chairs in the living room, looking at Ciel hunched over his laptop on the couch. “Sitting like that all day can’t be good for you.” 

Ciel grunts. 

“I mean,” continues Sebastian, “First of all you’re going to kill your eyes doing that; the light from the computer is bad for you.”

No response from Ciel, who continues to surf the web.

“Second of all,” continues Sebastian, undeterred, “You’re really ruining your posture. And you’re so petite already, don’t you want to give yourself as much height as possib—“ 

“Another word and I’ll order you to jump out the window,” snaps Ciel without taking his eyes off of the computer screen. 

“Well!” says Sebastian, folding his arms and pursing his lips. “I was only trying to—“ 

Ciel gives him a look, and the demon says no more, going back to his book.

 

* * *

In fact, Ciel really only speaks to Sebastian to give him orders, such as “do my laundry”, “make my lunch”, or “stake that vampire”. 

Interestingly enough, Sebastian finds a sort of companion in Lizzie. Although she was originally so dead set on hating him, Lizzie finds it very hard to hate anyone. And after seeing Sebastian become such an asset to their little operation, Lizzie warms up to the demon fairly quickly, smiling at him when he cooks her a delicious meal or serves as a meat shield between her and flying ectoplasm.

Ciel hates their friendship. Hates it, hates it, hates it. He knows that Sebastian is just schmoozing it up with his cousin to spite him, and boost his own demonic ego. And it’s rather hard to complete an exorcism when an excitable blonde and a smarmy demon are gossiping like old women behind him. 

Especially since Ciel himself is usually the subject of that gossip. 

 

* * *

 

“Can we please maintain an atmosphere of professionalism, _please_ ,” Ciel says, wiping the chalk from his hands and turning from his newly drawn defensive sigil to face his cousin and his nemesis. 

Both Sebastian and Lizzie fail to look guilty. “What?” says Lizzie, folding her arms. “We’re whispering. We’re allowed to whisper.”

“Not when you’re talking about how I should wear less black!” protests Ciel. “What’s wrong with black, anyway?”

“You just look so much better in blue, my master,” says Sebastian, grinning a lopsided but utterly handsome grin at Ciel.

Ciel swallows. “I don’t need to know that. I like black; it makes me look like an exorcist. And I’ve _told_ you not to call me master.” 

Sebastian tilts his head, the smile still on his face. “But that is who you are to me, master.” His eyes glow faintly, as if daring Ciel to challenge him. 

_Bloody demon, even using his subservience to mock me._ “It’s honestly just embarrassing for both of us,” snaps Ciel.

“I don’t know…” says Lizzie. “I think it’s cute! It shows he respects you!”

Ciel huffs. “That’s not what he’s doing! He—oh, forget it. Let’s just get out of here.”

* * *

 

 

So Ciel can’t stand the demon. 

For a while. 

But after a few weeks he finds himself tolerating Sebastian just a bit more. Mostly because Sebastian does his laundry, makes his bed, cleans his house, and feeds him, but it’s more than that. 

Because Sebastian, unlike his beloved cousin or any of his other sunshine-y friends, is an asshole. This is welcomely refreshing. 

Ciel has never been able to shit talk like he can shit talk with Sebastian; they discovered this when they both made a derisive comment about a man’s mullet in the mall a few weeks after they met. And during a mission where they fight a Dame Blanche, Sebastian is delighted to find out that Ciel knows French; this makes shit talking even easier.

So Ciel has to face the facts; he’s starting to not completely totally despise the creature that ruined his life. But it’s gotten to be worse than that. 

One of the many struggles of living with a demon is the constant sexual torture.

No, he’s never been touched against his will, or assaulted in any way. As Sebastian himself said when Lizzie inquired about the subject, “I, unlike some of my more savage brethren, have a code of ethics. I would never assault a human like that; so distasteful. There are more satisfying ways to torture, if I so chose to undertake them.” 

But _god_ , Ciel is honest enough to admit to himself that Sebastian takes the form of the most attractive man he’s ever seen. And even if Sebastian has never actively seduced him, the demon can’t help but drip sensuality. 

And it’s things Ciel can’t actually make him stop doing, either. Well, he _could_ technically order Sebastian to stop lounging around the apartment shirtless, but wouldn’t that be petty and juvenile? 

And of course he  _could_ technically tell Sebastian to not lean over him and breathe in his ear or on his neck when Ciel is showing him and Lizzie something in The Book, but wouldn’t that be pointing out something that Sebastian doesn’t even realize he’s doing?

And yes, of course he _could_ tell Sebastian to stop… touching him. But Sebastian only brushes past him by accident, or squeezes his waist when he’s carrying Ciel out of danger. Wouldn’t that be nitpicking? 

It’s natural for the demon, probably. Not something Sebastian could stop, even if he _was_ aware of it. 

It’s not just something Ciel can ignore, though. Sebastian has started to leak into his dreams. Those slender, dexterous hands, those thin, cruel lips…

He’s started to wake up in the middle of the night, sweaty and hard, desperately reaching for his cock and roughly fisting it until he gasps with climax and falls on the bed, cursing himself. 

This has made interactions with the demon somewhat awkward; he’s taken to avoiding Sebastian’s gaze. 

 

* * *

“Master?” says Sebastian one day, appearing in the doorway of the living room with groceries as Ciel is trying to watch a youtube video about the making of a watermelon cake, in the vain hope of ignoring the demon. 

“What?” he grunts in response, feeling the tips of his ears go warm. “ _Master,” murmurs Sebastian in his dreams, nuzzling Ciel’s naked cock right before swallowing it to the hilt in one go…_

“You’ve seemed somewhat off, recently,” says Sebastian, frowning slightly. “Is everything alright?” 

“Shut up,” says Ciel calmly, focusing intently on the pink buttercream being slathered onto pink cake. “Go bother someone else, I’m busy.” 

“I know something is the matter,” says Sebastian. He puts down his groceries on the kitchen table before walking over to place a hand on Ciel’s shoulder. “Tell me, Ciel,” he says sincerely.

Too sincerely.

At that moment, Ciel looks at Sebastian’s concerned face and sees the smirk hidden behind it. And then he realizes he was wrong. All the touches, the looks, the puffs of breath… Sebastian has been seducing him _this whole time._

“You _bastard_ ,” breathes Ciel, looking at him in surprise. “You absolute fucking bastard.”

“Your words wound me,” says Sebastian, placing a hand on his chest in mock offense. “I have no idea what you mean.” From the look on his smug demon face, Ciel can see that he absolutely knows that Ciel knows.

Without another word, Ciel grabs the demon by his lapels and pulls him down for a bruising kiss. 

In response, the demon growls in triumph and scoops Ciel up to straddle his waist—one hand on Ciel’s lower back and the other hitching up a leg—before striding forward to press the exorcist against the nearest wall. 

Ciel whimpers, the show of strength and dominance lighting a fire inside him. He begins rocking his hips gently against Sebastian’s stomach as they kiss, feeling himself getting hard. “You could have _asked_ ,” he says between pants when Sebastian’s mouth relinquishes his so he can breathe. “You didn’t have to toy with me.” 

“And where’s the fun in that?” says the demon, kissing and sucking at his neck. 

Ciel moans, before collecting himself slightly. “Bed,” he orders.

Immediately, Sebastian scoops him into his arms and carries him into the bedroom, throwing him on the mattress. He doesn’t even let his body bounce before he’s pinning him to the bed and literally ripping off his shirt. 

Ciel gasps. “Hey, what the fuck—“ 

“I’ll get you a new shirt,” growls Sebastian, before latching his mouth onto one of Ciel’s pink peaked nipples and sucking. 

To his supreme embarrassment, Ciel squeals, wrapping his arms around Sebastian’s head in a knee-jerk reaction. He’s never felt anything like it; like he wants to wriggle away and feel more, more, more at the same time.

Sebastian notices this reaction, of course, and takes his mouth off Ciel’s chest to leer at him. “What, hasn't anyone touched your nipples before?”

“You’re disgusting,” snaps Ciel, but he’s sighing at how cold his nipple feels without Sebastian’s hellishly warm mouth. 

His body must be unconsciously arching up in eager want, because Sebastian chuckles at him before putting his mouth on Ciel’s other nipple, sucking furiously as his other hand goes to pinch the nipple he’s not currently mouthing. 

Ciel’s eyes widen, his head falls back, his mouth opens and ungodly high-pitched sounds escape his parted lips. “Too much!” he whimpers desperately, even as he hugs Sebastian’s head to his chest again, clearly indicating his consent. “I can’t do this! I can’t! Sebastian, I… ah!

Sebastian hums, continuing to suck, dropping his lower body so that his torso rubs against Ciel’s cock. 

The vibration of the humming, along with the stimulation on his cock, prove to be too much. With his loudest moan yet, Ciel reaches his climax, rutting his hips and writhing against the demon’s body. 

When he comes down from his high, he sees the demon smirking at him. “Just from your nipples?” Sebastian says proudly. “How long has it been since you last came?” 

He’s promptly kicked in the face. 

“Get out!” snaps Ciel, face crimson with embarrassment, shame, and anger. “Get out of my room!”

“Master,” says Sebastian with a frown, catching Ciel’s ankle and holding it gently. “Please, calm down. What just happened was—“

“A big fucking mistake,” spits Ciel, thrashing to get out of Sebastian’s grip. “I order you to get out of my room!”

And Sebastian has no choice but to comply, standing up and bowing his head before hurrying out of the room. This leaves Ciel alone on his bed—sweaty, panting, and drastically needing to change his pants.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new case appears! Hopefully that will be enough to distract Ciel from how much thinking of Sebastian makes him want to crawl into a hole and never come out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO SORRY for how I disappeared on you guys. I have no excuse, except for the fact that I'm a college student and had terrible writers block. Luckily enough, I think with the way the plot is about to pick up I won't have trouble with writer's block as much anymore. However, I will be very, VERY busy, so I don't think this fic will be updated on a weekly basis. But I haven't given up, don't you worry. I love this fic, and I'm still working on it.

If Ciel was trying to ignore Sebastian before, it’s nothing to how he’s trying to ignore him now. 

The apartment has never felt small; in fact, Ciel has always considered it to be somewhat spacious. However, now that he’s attempting to ignore Sebastian entirely, it feels incredibly tiny.

He doesn’t know if he’ll ever forgive himself for giving his consent to Sebastian, for letting the demon touch him like that. It was a moment of pure, heated lust, something that had sprung up from those weeks of touches and looks. It was a moment of weakness; something had crumbled inside him. 

Somehow he had convinced himself in the moment—no, not in the moment. In the last couple of weeks, he had begun to unconsciously convince himself that Sebastian wasn’t the creature that Ciel had originally thought he was. That Sebastian might have changed. And Sebastian felt _so good_ , his mouth and his hands and his comforting weight, pinning Ciel to the bed. Everything felt _right._

But then the orgasm cleared, and he realized what he had done; slept with the monster who had ruined his life all those years ago. And he was beyond disgusted.

 _You’re an idiot, Ciel_ , he thinks bitterly as he ignores Lizzie’s texts that keep buzzing on his phone, preferring to lose himself in the newest television series he’s watching.

Finally, she calls him and he can’t pretend to ignore her any longer without feeling guilty. 

“Where have you been?” she demands as soon as he picks up the phone. “I’ve sent you like ten or fifteen texts!”

Lizzie has never felt awkward about double, triple, etc texting.

Ciel sighs, debating what to say. “I’ve… been busy,” he says lamely. “Sorry for the radio silence, what’s up?”

Lizzie doesn’t respond for a moment. Then, “What happened? Are you ok?” 

Inwardly cursing how perceptive Lizzie can be, Ciel stumbles over, “Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Do I sound not fine?”

“Don’t bullshit me,” says Lizzie sharply. “Ciel, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Ciel tries, feeling awful. “Just tired, it’s been a long couple of days—“

“What happened?” says Lizzie, ignoring him completely. “Was it Sebastian—“

“No!” Ciel says immediately, and to his horror he realizes that his voice is wavering and his throat aches. He’s actually going to cry about this.

“I’m coming over,” says Lizzie, her voice deadly calm. “And if he’s hurt you, I’m going to kill him.” 

“No, Lizzie—“ says Ciel, but she’s already hung up the phone. He swears and throws the phone on his bed, before pulling his legs to his chest and curling up in the fetal position. He feels so empty, so _used_ … god, is he actually going to cry about this?

There’s a knock on the door. Ciel grits his teeth and ignores it, knowing Lizzie couldn’t possibly be here so soon.

“Ciel?” Sebastian says after a minute, his voice muffled through the door. “Are you alright?” 

“Piss off,” bites Ciel, feeling more tears forming. 

Another pause. “Ok.” 

There’s a knock on the outer apartment door about ten minutes later. Ciel grumbles, but he gets up to answer it, pointedly not looking at the demon—who’s eyeing him anxiously—as he crosses the living room to let Lizzie in. 

Immediately after he opens the door, she grabs his arm and drags him back into his room, slamming the door in the demon’s face. “What did he do?” she demands. Her aura is fiery. “What did that evil fucker do? I’ll kill him, Ciel; I swear I will. It may kill me, but I’ll—“ 

“Lizzie, Lizzie calm down,” soothes Ciel, putting his hands on her shoulders. “He… he didn’t hurt me. Well, I mean—“ 

“What _happened_ ,” demands Lizzie.

Ciel sighs, fidgeting. “Well… we had an… encounter.” 

“Spill!”

“He can hear everything I’m saying!”

“Ciel Phantomhive, if I don’t find out what happened, I’m going to assume he raped you and I am going to go in there right now and—“

“Fine!” says Ciel quickly, holding up his arms in surrender. “Fine, I’ll tell you, just please don’t do that!”

As he explains what happened, Lizzie’s eyes get wider and wider. “Ciel!” she nearly shrieks, slapping Ciel’s arm. 

“I know, I know,” says Ciel ruefully, covering his eyes. “I fucked up tremendously.” 

“I thought you hated him!”

“I did! I still do!” says Ciel. “But… he… he’s a _demon_ , Lizzie! He’s so attractive! I couldn’t help myself!” To his horror, his eyes start to burn again.

Lizzie sees that, and her eyes widen, her aura turning tender. “Oh, Cece, don’t cry!”

“I’m not,” protests Ciel, angrily wiping the tears away before they can completely form. “Lizzie, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know why I did that.” 

“Because he’s gorgeous!” she says, putting a hand on his shoulder before pulling him into a hug. “Don’t beat yourself up, sweetie. He was kissing your ass for weeks; of course you grew to like him a little bit. He’s not such a bad guy, apart from—“

“Apart from when he ruined my life?” mumbles Ciel into her shoulder.

She sighs. “Yeah… It’s complicated.” 

“Very,” says Ciel. “Lizzie, I don’t know what I’m going to—“ 

Just then, Lizzie’s cell phone rings. She looks at Ciel guiltily, but Ciel nods, ducking out of her embrace and gesturing for her to take it. “Hello?” she says. “Yes, this is Elizabeth Midford. Who may I ask is calling?” 

Ciel lies down on the bed, turning to look at the ceiling and getting lost in thought of how much of an idiot he is as she continues to speak. In fact, he’s so lost in thought that Lizzie has to shake him to get his attention. “What?” he says groggily, sitting up and looking at her. “Is it a case?”

Lizzie nods, looking excited. “An amusement park is being haunted.”

“An amusement park?” repeats Ciel. “The whole park?”

“The whole park!” repeats Lizzie, shaking Ciel’s shoulders in excitement. “Apparently it’s a mass haunting, lots of ghosts… oh man, Ciel… if you thought we got a lot of money from that old lady, imagine what we’re going to get from a whole _park_.”  


“Holy shit,” says Ciel, thinking it over. For the first time in a while, a small smile appears on his face. “We’re going to be _rich_. When do they want us?” 

“As soon as possible,” says Lizzie. 

Immediately Ciel rolls off the bed and dashes to his dresser, pulling out a drawer to pick an outfit out. “I can be ready in twenty. Just need to shower.”

“Sweet!” says Lizzie, watching him. Just as Ciel’s leaving for the bathroom, she asks softly, “Are you going to tell Sebastian?”

Ciel freezes. In his excitement, he completely forgot about that damned demon. “Ugh, I don’t want to. We can do this without him, though, and—“

“Ciel,” Lizzie says sharply. “You can’t hide from him. He’s your housemate, for crying out loud! The two of you have some weird contract going on!”

“…Yeah,” Ciel says with a sigh. “Ok. I’ll tell him. But I’m _not_ going to talk to him otherwise.” 

“Great,” says Lizzie with a roll of her eyes as Ciel leaves for the living room. “So it’ll be me relaying information in between the two of you idiots. Phenomenal.” 

In the living room, Sebastian jerks his head up and his eyes widen in surprise as he sees Ciel moving towards him. “Master?” 

“Shut up,” Ciel says flatly. “We’re still not speaking and I still hate you. But we have a job, and it’s big, and you need to make yourself useful. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.” 

“Of course, but—“ But before Sebastian can say anything else, Ciel leaves the room.

 

* * *

 

 

The car ride is a somber affair. Ciel wanted to make Sebastian run alongside the car so that he wouldn’t be trapped in such an enclosed space with him; luckily for Sebastian, Lizzie insisted that not only was that cruel and unusual, but it would also very much call attention to the demon. 

Lizzie drives, Ciel sits shotgun, and Sebastian stretches out in the backseat. Occasionally Ciel can feel the burn of Sebastian’s eyes on him—his extra perceptive senses make it impossible not to—and it makes him grit his teeth. He turns up the volume on his iPhone to try and ignore the demon altogether.

Finally, they see a sign that says “Five miles to Noah’s Arc Amusement Park!” and Ciel breathes a sigh of relief. 

 

* * *

 

They pull into the parking lot, and Lizzie parks as close as she can to the entranceway. There’s a man standing under the brightly colored arch. He’s a middle-aged man, brunet and portly—and looking like a nervous wreck. His relief is palpable when the three exorcists get out of the car and walk towards him. “You’re Elizabeth Midford, yes?” he says. “The young lady I spoke to on the phone?” 

Lizzie smiles and nods, reaching out her hand to shake. “That’s me!”

“Oh, thank goodness,” exhales the man, wringing her hand with his. Then he turns to Ciel and his eyes light up. “It’s you… it’s Ciel Phantomhive! The exorcist… I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you!” Up closer, Ciel can see that he’s sweating under his sideburns. 

“Um,” says Ciel, gingerly taking the man’s outstretched hand and wincing as it’s shaken to oblivion. “Yeah, it’s me.” 

“I’ve been such a fan of your work,” gushes the man, holding on for Ciel’s hand for far too long before Ciel all but yanks it away. “I’m a fan of the supernatural myself.”

“Ah,” says Ciel uncomfortably. “Cool. Uh, do you own the park?”

The man shakes his head. “I’m the manager; sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. Ben Kelvin. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

“Sure,” says Ciel. 

Then Kelvin seems to see Sebastian for the first time. “And who is—“ 

“Don’t worry about him,” Ciel says quickly. “He’s just a servant, of sorts.”

Kelvin blinks, but seems to accept it. “Very well.”

“Now,” says Ciel, looking at the amusement park in front of them with a scrutinizing eye. “Show me what I need to exorcise.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I'm sure you can see where this arc is going... >:)
> 
> Actually, question: Do ya'll want me to update on an as-written basis, or do ya'll want me to write the whole thing and then update weekly? Let me know and I'll do what the majority wants!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a brief tour of a very typical amusement park, Ciel might have found the source of the haunting. But he's certainly not going to like it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO GUYS WTF IM BACK
> 
> ok, so there are two reasons for this ridiculous delay. one, college is HARD AND FINALS ARE IMPOSSIBLE. 
> 
> and two, crippling, crippling depression. like, so bad. i can't tell you guys what it's been like (unless you have depression). it was so bad, even getting up was difficult. so writing was pretty much out.
> 
> but ya'll don't need to hear about that!!!! anyway!!! back to sebaciel. this chapter doesn't have smut--but it does have a pretty good UST-charged moment. at any rate, plot things are happening!!!! wooo!!!

“It started in the hall of mirrors,” explains Kelvin as he leads them down the main walkway of the park. “People started seeing… awful things behind them in the mirrors. Luckily enough, they just thought it was part of the fun. But once I started hearing about it, I knewsomething was wrong.” 

“What did they see?” asks Ciel, taking off his eyepatch and looking at every building they pass. 

“Ghastly looking figures, so I heard,” says Kelvin, looking around nervously as if he expects them to appear at any moment. “Children and adults, distorted by even the normal mirrors. Cut and bleeding, missing limbs, heads cracked open. Reaching out as if trying to grab the patrons.”

“Well, at this point I’m not ruling out vengeful spirits,” says Ciel, squinting as he looks around.

There’s definitely something going on here; he can feel goosebumps forming on his skin and a hazy, supernatural fog obscures the town. It’s oppressive, hostile

To be honest, Kelvin makes him uneasy too. The man’s aura is a muddy brown—typical of middle-aged men whose lives have flatlined into something uneventful—but there’s something else too it. It almost seemed to flash red when he saw Ciel, and that’s something that Ciel has never experienced before. 

And it’s clear he’s not the only one who’s concerned; Lizzie is eyeing Ciel nervously when he feels a hand on his shoulder. 

He turns and stiffens to see Sebastian gazing at him with those unearthly red eyes. “What.” 

“I don’t like this,” says Sebastian. 

Ciel blinks. He’s never heard the demon say something like this. “What don’t you like?”

“This place,” the demon says. “Don’t you feel it? Don’t you see it?”

“Yes,” says Ciel, looking around. “I see and feel that it’s haunted. That’s what we’re here for, idiot.” 

“It’s something more than just a haunting,” insists Sebastian, lowering his voice and leaning closer, so close that Ciel shudders at the feel of his warm breath. “I’ve never felt something like this.” 

“Well, we’ll stop it,” says Ciel, stepping back.

But Sebastian steps forward, even closer, and murmurs, “And the man. I don’t… like the way he looks at you.”

It takes Ciel a moment to register what this means. “Oh my god,” he says finally, looking up at the demon with a grin. “Are you exhibiting some weird demon jealousy?” 

“What?” says Sebastian, eyes widening as he finally leans back a bit, giving Ciel some breathing room. “No, not at all. I just—“

“You’re being territorial,” says Ciel, folding his arms smugly. “Honestly, demon. This is sad. Just because I let you touch me once—“

His voice breaks off into a squeak as Sebastian suddenly grabs him by the collar of his shirt and lifts him up so that he’s standing on his tiptoes, nose to nose with the demon. Suddenly, Sebastian’s eyes are glowing embers again, and his teeth look pointed. “Don’t get so flippant with me, you brat,” he growls, and the darkness and lowness of his voice makes Ciel shudder. “I’m under _your_ orders to do whatever you say, up to and including keeping you safe while you exorcise; I can’t help but warn you of danger. I am immensely tired of you treating me like a mongrel you can drag around on a leash. Keep this up, and I _will_ eat your soul, regardless of how much I don’t want it.” 

Ciel swallows, feeling cold sweat trickle down his spine. Every nerve in his body is screaming _danger, danger, danger_. “Let… let go of me, bastard,” he manages, trying his best to contort his terrified face into a glare. 

Sebastian regards him for a moment. Then he leans forward even more to murmur in Ciel’s ear: “And, for the record? You were aching for me. I took pity on you, poor thing.” 

A slap rings out, and Sebastian immediately drops Ciel, who stumbles back, fixing his collar. Slapping the demon’s cheek felt like hitting marble; cold and unforgiving. “If you speak that again, I’ll have you make yourself suffer,” he spits.

“Just try it,” says Sebastian with a smirk.

“And you will _never_ touch me again.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” says Sebastian, a challenge in his tone.

Ciel shakes his head, trying to calm himself down as he turns to see how Kelvin reacted to their little tableau. But he sees that Lizzie, beautiful genius that she is, has tactfully drawn away the man’s attention by asking him about the park’s logistics. As Ciel rejoins them, she looks at him worriedly, but says nothing.

“Anyway, I’m not the one who should be telling you all of this,” says Kelvin. “I’m leading you to where my staff are; they know this park inside and out. They’ll be able to tell you more.” 

He leads the three of them to a drab building towards the end of the park, tucked out of reach. On the inside, it boasts a comfortable-looking employee lounge, with two employees standing and talking. They look uneasy.

“Hello, you two,” says Kelvin, “This is Ciel Phantomhive the exorcist, and his associates. Please tell him everything you know about what’s been happening, and aid him in whatever he does. I must attend to business elsewhere, but please contact me with any problems.” Then he turns to place his hands on Ciel’s shoulders. “Ciel, I can’t thank you enough.”

“…Yeah,” says Ciel, wriggling uncomfortably in the man’s grip. _There’s that flash of red aura again…_ He hears Sebastian huff behind him, and knows that the demon is very close to baring his fangs.

Once Kelvin leaves, Ciel breathes a sigh of relief and turns to face the amusement park’s employees. “Um, hi. Thanks for agreeing to help out.” 

“No,” says an employee, walking forward to meet them, “Thank _you_ for helping us out.” He smiles; it’s a tired smile, but a genuine one. Altogether he’s an interesting looking guy, with a snaggle tooth and dyed orange hair. His aura is a pale yellow; friendly, but wan, which is understandable to Ciel considering the circumstances. “I’m Jay, nice to meet you.” He gestures to the employees behind him. 

“And this is Dolly.” 

“Hey!” says the next person he gestures to, rather excitedly. They have sandy hair hiding half of their face, which is dotted with freckles of all shapes and sizes. Dolly strides forward and takes Ciel’s hand, pumping it wildly before releasing it and doing the same to both Lizzie and Sebastian. Their aura is a hot pink—too bright for Ciel’s taste, but harmless and open.

“Hi,” says Ciel. “Um, where are the rest of your staff?” 

“Some are in the park, some got too scared and went home,” says Jay. 

“This must be a tough time for you,” says Lizzie sympathetically.

Dolly nods, biting her lip. “I don’t care for ghosts much.”

“That’s why we’re here,” says Ciel. “Can you show me all the areas in the park where the ghost manifested?” 

“Of course,” says Jay with a nod. “Please, follow me.” 

Their first stop is the house of mirrors. Ciel sniffs around it for a while, takes in the definite after-traces of a haunting, but finds nothing.

“I guess we should search the entire park,” he says at last. “How big is this place, again?”

“Pretty large,” says Jay, pulling out a map to show Ciel.

Ciel sighs. “Ok, here’s how this is gonna go,” he says, looking at Jay and the other three. “We’re going to split up. Sebastian, you go with Lizzie, do what she says, and _protect her at all costs_ , do you understand me?” 

“Perfectly,” says Sebastian with a nod, though he looks a little troubled.

Lizzie also looks a bit worried. “Ciel… splitting up is never a good idea in horror movies…”

“It works fine in Scooby Doo, doesn’t it?” says Ciel dryly. “I’ll be fine, Liz. Just make sure you keep Sebastian in line, ok?” 

Lizzie nods. “Where do you want us to go?”

“Go to kiddie land and the rollercoaster area,” says Ciel after studying the map for a moment. “Jay and I will go to the, uh, ‘Spook Town’ and the water world.” 

“Alright; keep in touch,” she says, before turning to leave with Sebastian.

“Ready to go?” says Ciel to Jay, who’s checking his cell phone. 

“Oh… yeah!” Jay says, quickly pocketing his phone. “Sorry. Um… let’s go.” 

Ciel is really hoping that he finds something in Spook Town, as he’s not particularly fond of getting wet. Luckily, when they get to their first haunted house (a wooden building with tacky and over-the-top witches and skeletons painted on it), Ciel sees a spirit standing in the entrance line. A young woman staring at him, reaching out with a hand. Her body is translucent, and her head is indeed cracked open—just like Kelvin said. 

“There!” he says, slowly starting to walk towards her.

Surprisingly, the spirit doesn't approach him, or even stand her ground. Instead, she turns and bolts, covering more ground than possible with the way her legs are moving. Ciel swears, picking up into a run to try and catch up. As he does, he hears Jay start running to follow him.

After a minute or two, she evaporates into a nondescript looking shed, standing on the perimeter of the part. Ciel sighs, expecting it to be locked; however, the door swings open when he tries the handle. Then, another surprise: instead of a janitor’s closet, all that’s inside the shed is a flight of stairs leading down. 

“Hey,” he says, turning to Jay who’s had no problem keeping up. “What is this?” 

Jay looks at the stairs in bewilderment. “No idea,” he says. “It’s not on any map I’ve ever seen.” 

Ciel sighs. “Wonderful.” The last thing he wants to do is head down these stairs, but it’s quite clear that this is where the spirit wanted him to go—and probably where the source of the hauntings is. 

So he and an obviously uneasy Jay descend down the stairs. It’s not long before they reach another door, which is also unlocked. 

“Um,” says Jay as Ciel turns the handle. 

“What?” says Ciel, turning to look at him.

Jay shakes his head. “Nothing. Sorry. Just nervous.” 

Ciel sighs as he opens the door and steps inside, still turning his head to look at Jay. “Look, I deal with this stuff all the time. Worst case scenario, we’re going to find some dead bodies. If you’re uncomfortable with that, you can always…” 

As he turns his head back around and sees the room they’ve entered, his voice dies. After a moment of looking, as his brain tries to comprehend what his eyes are taking in, he leans over and retches, emptying his stomach of his dinner. 

“Ah, Ciel!” says a voice, dimly familiar though impossible to place due to the stupor that he’s slipping under. “You’ve made it. Excellent!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the cliffhanger. love you guys, bless you for sticking with me!!!! i will try to update in the next two weeks now that i'm home!!!
> 
> also: one more thing. sorry if i take a while to respond to your comments, or occasionally miss them, or seem like i disagree with you (that's super rare but it's happened like twice out of all the comments i've gotten). I love every single comment (except for that one weird one i got on artistic process that was like "FUCK LIZZIE" lmao), and thank you so much for sending them. if i haven't responded, feel free to GENTLY prod me. key word is gently.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The source of the hauntings, finally revealed. Ciel Phantomhive, in peril. And Sebastian Michaelis... hero?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!!!!! I'm so relieved i was able to get this chapter up much faster than the last one. Hope you enjoy the last chapter of my own little "book of circus".
> 
> Enjoy!

As a review: Ciel Phantomhive has had no recollection of what happened to him, on that cold evening, the night of his tenth birthday. All he has known is what the therapists have told him: he was separated from his parents on a busy city street, and went missing until the dawn of the next day, where he was found in a catatonic state, his eye marked, his clothing in tatters, his hands clutching a book that the police dismissed as a children’s book of the supernatural. Thankfully, he woke up about a week later, but was forever changed into a surly, troubled child who often fell victim to panic attacks. 

Meeting Sebastian gave him the memory of red eyes and a velvety voice, and now he blames the demon for his imprisonment. That’s all he has known.

Until now.

Now, looking around the room he’s entered, memories are coming back to Ciel. And none of them are good ones. He tries to beat them down as he surveys his surroundings.

The room itself—lit by a multitude of candles—is a circular auditorium-like setting, with a large rotund stage in the middle. The two rows of seats around the room are empty, but the stage is filled with cages, organized around the rim. Each cage has a corpse in it, in various stages of decay. Some are adults. Some are children. In the middle of the stage—the very center of the room—is a stone table, big enough for one person to lie on. _A sacrificial altar_ , supplies Ciel’s panicked mind.

Standing next to the altar is Kelvin, his arms outstretched in presentation. “What do you think, Ciel Phantomhive?” he says eagerly, still sounding just as pleased to see Ciel as he was before, as if nothing has changed. “Does it look familiar? Did I manage to recreate it right?”

Ciel opens his mouth to speak, but what’s embarrassingly close to a whimper comes out. He steps back, preparing to run away, but his arms are grabbed at the biceps, holding him in place. It must be Jay—no one else is in the room with them. “Let me go!” he tries to order, but it sounds more like pleading. 

“I’m sorry for all the trouble, and the force,” says Kelvin sadly, not making a move to help him. “Really, it’s quite necessary. I’m sure someone like you will understand.” 

“Why the _fuck_ would I…?” says Ciel, trailing off.

Kelvin laughs. “Oh, don't play coy. You, the summoner of demons, among all people must understand why I must do this.” 

Ciel doesn't know how Kelvin found out about Sebastian, but at this point he’s too distressed and furious to question it. “I never wanted to summon a demon, you idiot!” he snaps. 

Kelvin shakes his head, tutting softly. “As I said previously, Ciel, I’m a huge fan of your work. I know all about you; especially your childhood, during which you summoned a powerful demon.” His voice is slowly getting louder, his face reddening. “No one ever cared about me, Ciel. No one every gave me any respect. This amusement park started to suffer. My wife left me, taking our children with her, because I was ‘too boring’. Too boring? The bitch had no respect for me!” By the end, he’s shouting. 

Then after a moment of silence he sighs, and when he speaks again it’s softer. “From that day on, I swore I’d gain power, power enough to show my wife that I was someone to respect. It was around the same time that I heard about you, through one of my workers here who was into the occult. She told me that a child was rumored to have summoned a demon, the same child who had gone missing. At first I dismissed it as nonsense, but the more I thought about it the more I hoped it was true. Of course, I had no way of knowing how to ask you. Instead, I started reading up on the occult, hoping to one day find someone else who had done what you did.”

Now Kelvin is smiling, beaming even, looking at Ciel happily. “Then you appeared again! And as an exorcist, of all things. What a blessing!”

“How nice for you,” says Ciel through gritted teeth, sweating with the effort it takes to beat away the memories that pester him. If he could only break Jay’s hold… but even at full strength he’s too weak for that. 

“It was marvelous. Bless you,” says Kelvin dreamily. “Yes, you appeared with that mysterious book, taking the occult world by storm. I was deliriously happy. I started following your work with the utmost dedication, case after case so beautifully closed. You became my hero, Ciel! And also… well, an obsession. So I formed a plan to get you here. If I slowly killed enough people—not enough to gain suspicion from the cops, mind you, but enough to amass a good amount of vengeful spirits—my park would become haunted, and I would have a case that was important enough to send the great Ciel Phantomhive my way.”

“I’m not going to help you summon a demon,” Ciel snaps.

“Oh, you don't have to,” says Kelvin brightly. “All I needed was to re-create the alter, find a human lure—ideally a person with strong ties to the supernatural—and to find that lovely book! The chants to summon a demon aren’t exactly online, you know.”

Now Ciel musters up a weak smile. “Well too bad for you,” he says. “I don't have the book. I never keep it with me. Li—one of my associates has it.” 

“Your associates?” says Kelvin with a frown. “Oh, that’s a shame. Well, we’ll fetch them in a moment then. I’m not keen on waiting, though, so let’s just get you tied down and ready to go, shall we? Jay?”

“Yes sir,” Ciel hears the man holding him reply reluctantly, and they start to move.

“No…” begs Ciel as soon as he realizes where they’re going, struggling weakly against the hold as he’s carried to the table. “No, please, not again…” 

And with that, the panicked part of his mind wins over the rational one, opening the floodgates and releasing all of the memories that have been buried. 

 

* * *

 

_He’s ten and lost on the streets of the city._

_“Mummy? Daddy?”_

_Right as he’s on the verge of properly crying, someone puts a nasty-smelling cloth to his face and that’s the last thing he remembers…_

_…until he wakes up by being thrown in a cage, hitting the metal bars with a painful thud that leaves the first of the many bruises he will receive that night._

_He bears witness to unspeakable things—the way the masked people cut open the children is grotesque, horrifying. With each new child they try something different, until he is the only left._

_Then it’s his turn to be carried the table, limp as a cooked noodle. He’s done with the screaming and crying. He knows that it’s over for him. Mummy and Daddy can’t find him. God cannot save him. There is no God, not in a world that would spawn something as horrible as this. There is only this dark, bloody hell that he has found himself in._

_That’s what he's thinking as they lay him down, chain him and raise the knife, chanting from a book while slicing into his stomach until his blood pours out onto the stone beneath him._

_He’s so numb at that point that it takes him a few moments to register the temperature drop in the room, the darkness, the shouts of the people who have hurt him. He weakly lifts his head and almost immediately drops it in surprise, seeing something unbelievable._

_A living shadow, with red eyes and teeth. And feathers._

_He watches as the people’s shouts turn to screams, as the shadow slaughters all of them, fighting the urge to shut his eyes. He watches as the shadow finishes its danse macabre, only to turn and approach him._

_“Will you kill me?” he asks, surprised at the strength of his voice._

_The shadow regards him for a moment. Then, ever so slowly, it begins to condense itself, turning into a human figure who could pass for normal… except for the fangs, horns, and wings. “Demons like me do not simply kill, we take the souls of humans.”_

_“Will you take my soul, then?” he asks._

_The demon shakes its head. “Once I would have, but not now. I get no pleasure out of tricking children out of their futures anymore.” The look in its eyes screams a history that Ciel has no interest in learning._

_“Then you’re no good to me,” he says, laying his head back down. “I want to die.”_

_He hears the demon sigh. “So young, to be so hopeless.”_

_“It hurts,” he replies. “My belly is bleeding. No one is coming to save me.”_

_“What, am I no one?”_

_To Ciel’s surprise, the demon is suddenly by his head, laying a hand on his eye. Burning pain sears through it, but it’s too brief for him to cry out. By the time it recedes, his vision is cloudy and red but his stomach better._

_The demon above him swears softly in an unknown language._

_“What is it?”_

_“Nothing,” says the demon, before Ciel hears a snap and the chains melt away. “Let’s get you out of this hole, shall we?” It scoops Ciel up into firm arms, and he curls into its chest, enjoying the warmth this hellish creature has to offer. “Sleep, little one. When you wake up you’ll be with your family.”_

_And that’s the last thing he remembers._

 

* * *

 

And that’s what he finds himself fixated on as he’s carried to the table and chained down. The idea of that monster—his savior—carrying him away from the danger. The demon. 

“I might as well start cutting him open—I do remember the website saying that the scent of fresh blood needs to permeate the air,” Kelvin says, presumably speaking to Jay.

His demon. 

Ciel looks up to see a knife poised above him. Fuzzy dots start appearing at the edge of his vision, and he feels bile rise in his chest. He’s almost about to give himself over to the darkness, when he remembers the name.

Sebastian.

“Sebastian!” he calls out suddenly, as loud as he can, starting to struggle against the chains with all his might. “Sebastian! Sebastian! Sebastian!”

Kelvin chuckles, stilling the knife in his hand before he can slash it down. “Do you honestly think that your friend could hear— _oof_ …” His face turns into an expression of shock and pain, and when Ciel looks down he sees a hand sticking through Kelvin’s lower abdomen. Then the hand pulls out and the man falls clumsily to the floor, revealing Sebastian standing behind him with a downright terrifying expression.

Sebastian kicks the body away and spits in its direction, before swiftly approaching the table and snapping his fingers. Instantly, the chains fall away, and Ciel lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Sebastian moves as if to pick Ciel up, but hesitates. “Can you walk?” 

Ciel whimpers in response, reaching out blindly in the demon’s direction. He needs that warmth back, and he needs it now. 

Sebastian inhales sharply, reaching down to scoop Ciel up and survey the state of his well-being closely. “Are you alright? I assume he didn't have time to harm you?” 

Ciel shakes his head, dazed. The danger is over, but the panic has not died down. “You saved me,” he mumbles, head reeling with old memories. “You saved me…” 

This is the last thing he says before he loses consciousness, feeling safe in the demon’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let it be known that this is not exactly how I imagine Ciel's kidnapping went in canon. This is not how I characterize Sebastian Michaelis in canon, either. I made both a lot kinder, lmao (although it is suggested that Sebastian has learned from some past mistakes... hmmm)
> 
> Next chapter will be full-on smut! Bless ya'll for sticking around! Your comments light up my life :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Ciel have some talking to do. And then, they have to do a little something else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!!! Sorry about the wait, but good newsl! This chapter is over 1000 words longer than usual, and a lot of it is smut!!! Yay!!!!
> 
> Also, please see my note at the end! Thanks!

When Ciel comes to, he’s staring at the ceiling of his bedroom and blinking against the sunlight streaming in through the window. “Wha…?”

“He’s awake!” comes a high-pitched squeal that can only be from Elizabeth. “Oh, Ciel!” 

Suddenly he’s enveloped by the smell of strawberries and a curtain of soft gold—along with the suffocation of Lizzie’s embrace. “L-Lizzie, enough,” he gasps. 

Quickly she releases him, jumping back. “Ciel, I’m so sorry! I’m just so relieved to see you awake again… I thought for sure when I found you that he had killed you!”

“He?” says Ciel blearily.

“That rat bastard, Kelvin,” she snarls. “A hole through the chest was too good for him.” 

Ciel sighs, bringing an arm up to push back his hair. “How long was I out?” 

“Only a few hours,” says Sebastian. 

Ciel sits up so quickly it gives him a head rush. The demon is standing awkwardly in the corner, his arms folded and his expression unreadable.

“Ciel, you shouldn’t sit up so quickly,” titters Lizzie. 

With a sigh Ciel reaches out to her, squeezing the hand she offers back to him. “Thank you for everything. I love you,” he says, before asking softly, “Can I… can I have a moment with Sebastian?”

Lizzie’s eyes tear up, but she nods, pressing a soft kiss onto Ciel’s lips before nodding at Sebastian and leaving the room, with the demon and the hunter left alone to speak. 

“What happened to Jay?” says Ciel first, just as Sebastian is opening his mouth to speak. 

“He attacked me, so I killed him,” Sebastian answers instead, frowning slightly. 

“How?” 

“A quick snapping of the neck. He felt almost no pain.” 

Ciel nods in satisfaction. “Good. And Dolly?” 

“I let her go,” says Sebastian. “Lizzie investigated and realized that she knew nothing. We told her that Kelvin had tried to kill you, and that he was going to jail. She left on her own.” 

“And the… the place I was taken?” says Ciel, cursing how his voice wavers.

“Destroyed,” says Sebastian, seeming proud of himself. “No trace of any of it. I figured that you wouldn’t want anyone to know—“ 

“I don’t,” Ciel admits, pleased that Sebastian knows him so well. Then, after a moment, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sebastian knows exactly what he’s asking about. “You never asked.” 

Ciel scoffs derisively. “ _That’s_ your excuse?” he demands. “That’s a supremely shitty excuse.”

“Fine,” says Sebastian with a sigh. “But my real reason isn’t much better. I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ciel says peevishly. “Of course I would have—“

“The second time we met, the very memory of your time with the cult sent you into a panic attack,” snaps Sebastian, folding his arms. “And you expect that I would have held you down and forced you to remember? You would have ordered me to stop. You would have punished me. I wasn’t going to risk that; I’m not an idiot.” 

“Oh,” Ciel says with a humorless laugh. “And for a moment I thought you were actually trying to protect me.” 

“I was doing that too! Ugh!” Sebastian exclaims, pushing back his hair in frustration. “You make everything so difficult. Why can’t you just accept the fact that I honestly want to help you?” 

“Because you’re a demon!” spits Ciel. “Do you know how many demons I’ve faced in my years as a hunter? Do you want to guess how many of them were nice, Sebastian?”

“I know that—“ Sebastian begins. 

But Ciel cuts him off. “None of them were nice, Sebastian. They’ve beaten me. They’ve _touched_ me. One of them tried to stick a bottle up my ass for fun—“ 

“ _Who_?”

Ciel blinks, thrown off of his tirade. “What?”

When he looks up at Sebastian, he sees that the demon’s face is murderous. Glowing eyes, elongated fangs. “Who did that to you? I’ll slaughter them—“ 

“Oh, shut up,” Ciel says dismissively. “My point is that demons aren’t exactly kind.” 

“I’m kind,” Sebastian insists, looking hurt.

“You weren’t so kind to the man you were possessing,” Ciel points out, folding his arms. “Arthur Wordsmith was miserable.” 

Sebastian smiles sheepishly. “Well, I have to eat souls occasionally, don’t I?” 

“True,” says Ciel. “But do you have to torment people first as well?”

“Not _everyone_!” says Sebastian. “I was nothing but kind to you, wasn’t I?” 

“Debatable,” Ciel says dismissively. “Why _were_ you so kind to me, anyway?” 

“That’s a long story.” 

“Then tell the story!”

Sebastian sighs. “Fine.” He pauses for a second, then speaks again. “As I stated previously when you were a child, I was involved with a very unfortunate contract in my past. I appeared to a child who was being horrifically abused by her father, promising that if she agreed to my contract her pain would end; that I would kill him. I did not tell her that she would die.” 

“Typical demon behavior,” says Ciel, disgusted. He turns to swing his legs over the side of the bed. “I’m leaving now.” 

“Wait!” says Sebastian, holding up his hands. “I’m not finished.” He waits till Ciel sighs and sits back in the bed before continuing. “It turned out that her father had skipped town because he owed people some money, and tracking him down proved to be surprisingly difficult. That meant I was traveling with a young girl for about two or three months—and no, I didn’t harm her in any way, before you ask. I was already getting her soul, so I relaxed a bit and decided it wouldn’t hurt to try and spend time with the tiny human. So I did. I fed her, dressed her—I even began to teach her how to read. It was all a game, but… I really enjoyed it.”

“Oh, please don’t tell me the girl taught you how to _love_ ,” Ciel says dismissively, though he has to admit that the demon’s tale is getting to him. “You still took her soul at the end, didn’t you?” 

Sebastian nods, looking troubled. “I did. And from that day on, I regretted it. I’m still not sure why—many of my brethren have done much more horrible things without flinching. But I was always a little different from the rest of them, and I felt terrible about how I stole her life like that. And… and do you want to know what the worst part was?” Lost in the story, Ciel nods without speaking, and Sebastian continues, “When I took her soul, she didn’t struggle. I showed her my true form, and she was frightened, but she told me that it was ok. She told me it was _ok_.” This last part makes the demon close his eyes and sigh. 

There’s a silence. Ciel feels uncomfortable, so he tries to break the tension. “Weird girl.” 

Sebastian chuckles humorlessly. “Indeed. And, to be fair, I didn’t exactly change how I treated every other human I met, up until you. I still tormented souls, mostly. I stayed away from children though.”

“Until me, of course,” Ciel says dryly. 

“Until you,” repeats Sebastian with another nod. “I only came to you because I was summoned by the cult. And when I saw you there, so hopeless and world-weary… well, I couldn’t bring myself to break my fast. I let you go.”

“But you didn’t, though,” Ciel says, pointing to his eye. “You linked us together, remember?”

“Ah yes,” says Sebastian, looking sheepish. “That was an accident. It had been a while since I had made a contract, and I kind of just—“

“An _accident_?” Ciel says in exasperation. “I don’t believe this. Why did you give me the book, by the way? All I know was that I was found holding it.” 

“I wanted to give you a way to fight back against what had happened to you,” says Sebastian earnestly. 

Ciel is speechless for a moment, looking at the demon’s face. Sebastian looks honest, but…  

“You’re a demon,” he says simply. “I… I can’t trust you, because demons lie.” 

Sebastian’s face falls, before he nods with his eyes to the ground. “I understand. If you want me to leave, I’ll—“

“But,” says Ciel, tilting his head in thought. “I can order you not to lie, can’t I?”

Sebastian looks up quickly, eyes wide. “You… you could. You absolutely could.” His mouth curls up in a hopeful smile.

Ciel smiles back, before schooling his features into a strict expression to say, “Sebastian, I order you not to lie to me! Why did you save me?” 

“Because I wanted you to be safe,” says Sebastian immediately, leaning in to communicate how earnest he’s being. “I still want you to be safe. Ciel, I just want to help you. At first it was because you reminded me of a mistake I made, but now I’ve grown fond of—“

“Enough!” says Ciel, stilling as he gazes into those deep red eyes. “I… get the point.” 

“I want you to be safe,” says Sebastian softly, leaning in further so that their noses are almost touching. 

“Sebastian…” murmurs Ciel, swallowing thickly as he looks into glowing red eyes. “I-“

“Please allow me to keep you safe, Ciel,” the demon pleads, placing a soft hand on Ciel’s cheek.

“Sebastian, I-“ 

“If you want me to leave, I’ll leave,” continues Sebastian, gently stroking Ciel’s face with a morose expression. “But I-“ 

“Shut _up_!” Ciel finally says in exasperation, grabbing the demon’s collar and pulling him down for a kiss. 

He expects Sebastian to be surprised, but the demon is apparently a quick thinker and immediately starts kissing him back, keeping the hand on Ciel’s cheek. 

It’s the warmth that Ciel’s been missing, the heat. 

“I… I want you to stay,” he mumbles after a moment, pulling back so that their foreheads are touching. “I… you’ve made me grow fond of you. Bastard.” He gasps as Sebastian bites his bottom lip.

“Ciel,” Sebastian murmurs, sounding genuinely like he’s in a state of complete bliss. “I’ll stay as long as you want me to. I’ll stay forever.”  

A high-pitched sound escapes the back of Ciel’s throat. Somehow the idea of this demon staying with him forever makes him feel the safest he’s ever felt. “Shut up,” he says once more. “Kiss me again.”

And Sebastian does, kissing him so fiercely that he feels as if he’s melting into the bed. This is enough to keep him satisfied for a little while, until it isn't any more. “Sebastian,” he murmurs, when he can drag his lips away from the demon’s.

“What is it, sweet Ciel?” Sebastian murmurs back, leaning in to kiss him again. 

Ciel shudders at the nickname, attempting not to get distracted. “Touch me,” he says, trying not to sound like he’s begging. Which he isn’t. 

Sebastian’s mouth curves up at the corners, in a typically crafty smile. “Touch you?” he says, dragging a hand down Ciel’s clothed chest and making sure to brush against a nipple as he does. “But you’re wearing so many clothes, darling. I won’t be able to touch you properly.”

“Then _move_!” Ciel demands, pushing Sebastian away before fighting a small battle with his shaky limbs to take his own shirt off. Finally he succeeds, throwing it to the side, and when he looks up at Sebastian he nearly comes.

The demon’s eyes glow as if he’d like nothing more then to devour Ciel in one bite, and it’s _good_. Because he won’t. Because Sebastian is here to protect him. “Don’t just sit there,” he says. “Touch me, Sebastian _._ ” 

“ _Yes_ ,” growls the demon, and suddenly he’s all over Ciel; hands firmly gripping Ciel’s hips and mouth sucking and biting at Ciel’s chest.

“Oh, _fuck_ ,” moans Ciel, trying to rut his hips up despite the grip that Sebastian has on them. “Sebastian, god. Your mouth is so hot…” 

“Your skin is so soft,” Sebastian says with a sigh, rubbing his cheek against Ciel’s chest. “You’re so beautiful, Ciel.” 

Ciel whines, pulling at Sebastian’s hair. “Stop teasing me!”

“It’s not teasing,” says Sebastian with a devilish smile. “It’s body worship. I haven’t forgotten how sensitive your nipples are, by the way.” 

“No!” Ciel cries out before the demon can continue. “No, Sebastian! I just… I want you to…” He claps a hand on his eyes, beyond embarrassed at what he’s about to say.  


Sebastian, of course, doesn’t let him give up. “What do you want me to do, Ciel?” he teases, sliding down Ciel’s body to nuzzle against a soft, thick thigh. 

Ciel lets out a soft moan, rutting his hips uselessly into the air. “I… I…” 

“I can’t do anything to you if you don’t tell me,” murmurs Sebastian, sucking marks into Ciel’s incredibly sensitive inner thighs, making the hunter squirm.

“Stop!” Ciel whines, trying to kick at Sebastian’s sides. “I want you to fuck me!”

The demon ceases all motion, staring up at Ciel in surprise. “Really?”

“Yes, really!” says Ciel indignantly. “What, are you surprised? Isn’t that what you were waiting for?”

“To be honest, I was only hoping that you’d let me suck you off,” says Sebastian.

“You _wanted_ to suck me off?” Ciel says, wrinkling his nose. “Gross, weirdo. I want you to fuck me. Is that ok?” 

“That is infinitely more than ok,” purrs the demon, as his dextrous fingers go to Ciel’s jeans, undoing the button and sliding them off smoothly. Clearly, he’s had practice.

Ciel feels a pang of jealousy go through him, as he mumbles, “How many times have you done this before?” 

“I’ve lost count,” admits Sebastian without shame as he then slides Ciel’s boxer briefs down, watching with unveiled lust as Ciel’s erect cock springs up to hit his belly. “But I can’t remember any of them being anywhere near as lovely as you, dear Ciel.” 

Ciel is about to accuse the demon of lying, before he remembers that he ordered Sebastian never to lie to him. This shuts him up, and instead he impatiently thrusts his hips up, his erection bobbing. 

Sebastian gets the message. “Alright,” he says with a laugh. “Where’s your lube?” 

“Drawer of the side table,” says Ciel immediately, gesturing to the right. “Where else would it be?” As Sebastian reaches over him to get it, he realizes that the demon is still fully clothed, while he is quite naked. “Take off your clothes.” 

“Yes, my master,” purrs the demon, and suddenly Ciel is looking at a very naked Sebastian, holding lube and boasting an expression that makes him look like the cat who ate the cream. He swallows dryly, before letting out a choked noise as Sebastian enters him with one finger, using his other hand to clamp onto Ciel’s thigh. 

“ _Oof_ , is that just one finger?” Ciel groans, shutting his eyes. “It’s… so thick…” 

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” says Sebastian with a chuckle, gently moving his finger around inside Ciel’s ass.

“Fuck you,” sighs Ciel, but he allows himself to be prodded at until he relaxes enough for Sebastian to add another finger. 

“So tight…” Sebastian breathes, and Ciel can feel his voice distorting demonically. “So _hot_ …” 

After a few moments of squirming around, Ciel feels that delicious shock go through him—it’s not foreign, but it never fails to make him yelp when it’s the first time in a while. “Seb- again! Do it again!”

Sebastian grins down at him, fangs showing as he slips a third finger in, wriggling it around with the others.

It doesn’t take long until Ciel is gasping, whimpering, so close to the edge that when Sebastian pulls those fingers out he keens in protest, scrabbling for purchase on the sheets so he can sit up and glare.

“What,” says Sebastian, before licking his fingers thoroughly. 

Ciel doesn’t even spare a thought to how disgusting that is. “You bastard!” he hisses. “I was so close—“ 

“I thought you wanted me to fuck you, Ciel,” says Sebastian, eyebrow raised.

“Well, yes,” Ciel says begrudgingly, “But—“

“Then let me fuck you,” growls Sebastian, and the tone makes goosebumps stand up on Ciel’s arms.

Good goosebumps. “Well… well hurry up,” Ciel snaps, lying back down. 

“Of course, sweet Ciel,” says Sebastian, the growl turning into a purr.

Gently Ciel’s hips are picked up—oddly gentle, considering how Sebastian’s eyes are burning—and Sebastian slides into him, barely any resistance trying to keep them from coming together.

Ciel hisses through gritted teeth, and Sebastian respectfully stops moving to give the hunter some time to adjust. Once the burning feeling in his ass has somewhat subsided, he nods.

Instead of the brutal thrusts Ciel expected, Sebastian starts rocking his hips gently but firmly, pressing deeper inside with each movement until he strikes Ciel’s prostate. 

As this goes on, Ciel feels himself melting into the bedsheets, a little whine escaping his mouth with each thrust. Sebastian lets out a growl and leans up to capture his mouth, and the two of them kiss quite passionately as they move together.

Finally, Ciel breaks away from Sebastian’s mouth—leaving a trail of saliva behind—and gasps, “Sebastian, I’m going to come—“

“Then come, sweet Ciel,” rasps the demon, lapping up the saliva left behind. “Come for me.” 

Ciel chuckles breathlessly. “You think you can just make me—“ And then Sebastian reaches down to stroke him once, and that’s enough. “ _Ah!”_ he cries softly, holding on to Sebastian for dear life as he comes. “Ah, ah, ah, Seb- Bastian, _oh_ …” This goes on until he’s spent. 

Sebastian, meanwhile, continues to thrust, growling getting louder as he obviously gets closer to the edge. “Ciel… I’m…” he begins, then breaks off to swear something in another language. Thankfully for Ciel, he pulls out right as he starts to spurt, covering the hunter’s belly in ropes of come. 

When it’s over, the two of them look at each other for a moment before Sebastian leans down to give Ciel a deep kiss, which Ciel reciprocates. They quickly get lost in the kissing, until the come dries and becomes quite tricky to get off later on in the shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING!
> 
> Ok, so here's the deal: I'm a slow fanfic writer but I'm a very fast roleplayer, and I love it so much. Lately I haven't had a consistent partner, so I'm hoping maybe I can find someone on here!!! If you have RPd before or you have a decent amount of writing experience, please leave a comment saying your age and we can swap discord accounts, or something like that! If you haven't heard of Discord, it's a marvelous website made for gamers to chat and it works wonderfully for RPing. 
> 
> As you can tell from this fic, I love Sebaciel. But I ship many other ships that I'd be willing to RP, from Black Butler and Hellsing too, and I can RP as almost any character. Please reach out to me if you're interested! Reminder: please tell me how old you are. I'm looking for people who are somewhat close to me in age to RP with.
> 
> (also, general comments on my fic are loved and appreciated!!! Thank you!!!!!)


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